PAL's daghang Salamat 2005 at Central Park

They flew to Manila their "hardworking and loyal partners in the travel and cargo industry in the Visayas"(in the words of PAL Pres. & COO Jaime Bautista), together with a select group from media. Of course, we were all billeted at Century Park Hotel - a sister company. From touch down to take off, the following day, everything was smooth and dandy. Philippine Airline Visayas, together with the Head Office, made sure there were no hitches.

By 6:30 pm, September 02, 2005, people were filling the lauriat tables in the Chinese Seafood Restaurant of Century Park. The stage was straight out of a Beijing Opera, with red and gold paper lanterns fluttering around a moon gate. A huge screen to the right was showing an audio-visual presentation of PAL's soon-to-launch Manila-Beijing route in November. Ladies were almost all in the requested Chinese or Chinese-inspired attire. The men, though, must have been cowed by the thought of wearing high-necked Chinese shantungs, so they came mostly in business attire.

The keynote address of President & COO Jaime J. Bautista was most exhilarating to the Visayas travel trade industry players as he commended the airline's profitable status to the "excellent performance" of the partners in theVisayas region, specifically the awardees.

"Your region has consistently been one of PAL's brightest growth areas in terms of sales," Mr. Bautista initially pointed out. "Visayas sales overshot both our forecasts as well as the previous year's performance by respectable margins despite..…the surging price of fuel, the tough economic conditions in key markets, and the continued worries over security situation."

The PAL top honcho then made some significant announcements that position the airline well on the forefront of travel market leadership in the country. Aside from having been the pioneer of e-ticketing by installing said service in key cities in the Visayas: Cebu, Bacolod and Iloilo, PAL also deployed Airbus A320 to more destinations in the Visayas in order to upgrade inflight comfort to international standards. To date, more than 60% of PAL ticket sales on eligible routes - domestic and international - are in e-tickets. This is in compliance to IATA's requirement for all airlines to be "ticketless" through electronic ticketing by 2007.

Bautista also touched on future developments, as he disclosed, "By early next year, six new Airbus A320 jets will serve domestic and regional routes. Three of those will join the fleet by no later than November, 2005..…the rest by February, 2006. We started flying the A320 jets eight years ago, in 1997." "We are busy opening new international routes," he proudly said. "Last March, we launched a pioneering service to Nagoya (Japan), one of the most sought-after destinations for Philippine carriers because of its strategic location in the industrial heartland of Japan."

On November 11, PAL flies direct to Beijing after an absence of 16 years. That was the reason for the Chinese-inspired DAGHANG SALAMAT Awards. Indeed, things are looking red-and-gold trimmed for the Philippines' flag carrier as it widens its horizons in the Asia-Pacific region. Kampai!