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Friday, September 19, 2003
PAL achieves 85-89% occupancy on Cebu-Narita flights
By Rudynah D. Entera
NOW that the country’s flag carrier, Philippine Airlines (PAL), flies five times a week from Cebu to Narita, Japan, it has consistently produced 85-89 percent occupancy in its 302-seater Airbus 330 flights.
This was revealed by the airline’s Mactan station manager Francisco Yngente IV after signing a contract with Sun.Star Cebu for a subscription of 101 copies per flight five days a week except Mondays and Saturdays.
Yngente, however, noted that the frequency would be increased to six flights a week starting late October.
“From Cebu, the aircraft departs at 7:50 a.m. and flies back from Narita at 6:50 p.m.,” he said.
He added that passengers for Japan destinations are a mixed market composed of tourists, businessmen and Filipino entertainers. “Other than Cebu to Narita, we are servicing Japan-destined flights from Manila to Fukuoka, Nagoya and Narita. We also have chartered flights from Cebu to Nagoya and Fukuoka.”
While Korean flights via PAL have established an almost 100 percent load factor four times a week, Yngente announced that the airline will soon fly from Manila to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia five times a week starting October.
PAL will also operate aircraft flying from Manila to Vancouver, Canada five times a week and pretty soon extend it to Las Vegas, USA.
“By December, we’ll be adding domestic flights. The Manila-Cebu sector will serve flights almost every two hours,” he added.
Foreign airlines
He revealed that foreign airlines will also soon be offering Cebu destinations, with Continental Airlines eyeing the Cebu-Guam route; Qatar flying via Bangkok, Thailand; and Korean Airlines starting to do chartered flights.
PAL administrative manager Gary Villegas said PAL is gradually recovering, leading to the full revival of flights that the airline used to have before the economic crunch hit the country and the world.
(September 19, 2003 issue)
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