Airline Partners: “….nothing can be out of reach for a smooth and functioning team.”

Recently, Republic Act 9497 of 2008 established the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines – paving the way for the improvement and modernization of enroute and terminal navigation aids, vital to the proper management of the airways system. We shall talk about the CAAP in future articles.

Except for the Military, airplanes are privately owned; and those that use the most and the largest airplanes are the airlines. A recent aviation summit talked about three distinct types of airlines operating in the world today: legacy airlines; low cost carriers and low cost long haul airlines. We have all these three types among our national carriers – and we see them all in Mactan everyday.

Legacy Airlines

Philippine Air Lines is our Legacy (Full Service) Airline. PAL, being the first airline in Southeast Asia and among the first in the world, has made us proud through the years. As what full service airlines have, PAL has a fleet of narrow to wide body and jumbo aircraft that seats three classes: First Class, Business and Economy.

Full Service Carriers cater to a wide mix of passengers; and because their flights are mostly international in nature and covers large distances, they have to create an atmosphere of personal service that is calibrated along the distinct classes of passengers they serve. Most Legacy Carriers carry their countries’ colors and are very focused on the corporate image and quality performance. This is the reason why PAL has maintained a certain and distinct clientele base altogether different from the Low Cost Carriers and its derivatives.

Low Cost and Low Cost Long Haul Carriers

I have discussed lengthily about the Low Cost Carriers in two consecutive past issues. I also mentioned that Cebu Pacific was among the first to operate along this concept in Asia in 1996. Air Philippines started just like every airline in 1995, and then started operating along the LCC concept just in 2006. All LCCs use a single most efficient aircraft like the popular Airbus 319s and 320s, like Cebu Pacific and the Boeing 737 series, like Air Philippines.

Among the main differentiating distinctions of LCCs from Full Service Airlines are: the emphasis on operating efficiency versus corporate image; one-class seating versus three-class cabins; the use of secondary airports versus busy ones; point-to-point city pairs versus hub and spoke centers; domestic versus international; and airport meals versus aircraft meals.

When demand for low cost air travel increased and clamor for regional-international destinations became more prevalent, LCC operators began to expand operations and started to operate in busier hub airports. Cebu Pacific started going international when the newer 319s and 320s arrived two to three years ago. Air Philippines will start going to regional-international destinations too this year.

When the tourism boom spread and travel became affordable to more and more air travelers, LCCs started to look for more modern and efficient turbo prop aircraft to fly to airports not capable of handling jet aircraft. We now look forward to seeing the Air Philippines Q300s and Q400s and the Cebu Pacific ATRs operating out of the NOW active Cebu Hub. As these domestic flights become more stable, the international flights of the Low Cost Long Haul Carriers will slowly connect to these domestic LCCs. It is all happening now!

Next issue:  The Future of Mactan-Cebu