PAL restores full flight schedule

CEBU, Philippines - Just in time for the onset of the holiday travel season, Philippine Airlines resumed full operations yesterday, November 24, with the restoration of flights and frequencies to pre-outsourcing levels at its hub in NAIA Terminal 2.

Full in-flight meal service were also restored after a brief interruption caused by the transition to third party service providers and the protest camp of former PAL workers at the airline’s Inflight Center in Pasay City.

Heralding the normalization of operations is the consolidation of all PAL flights at its home base in NAIA 2. Flights on the following sectors —Manila to and from Bacolod, Dipolog, Dumaguete, Ozamiz and Zamboanga— will depart and arrive at NAIA 2. These flights were temporarily housed at NAIA 3 to decongest the Centennial Terminal.

PAL earlier resumed its cargo operations on both domestic and international flights.

Meanwhile, Davao, one of PAL’s major destinations, has returned to its normal four-daily-flight schedule exactly a month after the airline embarked on its outsourcing program. PAL deploys its flagship Boeing 747-400 to Davao twice daily.

“As PAL’s service providers gradually fill up their manpower complement, all operational requirements, from passenger handling to ground handling of all PAL flights, shall now be done in PAL’s home base at Terminal 2,” airline spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said.

She added that PAL’s signature meals presentation and its wide array of complimentary drinks are also back on board.

“We thank our loyal passengers for bearing with us during these difficult times. We promise to exceed your expectations the next time you board a PAL flight,” she said.

PAL used to mount 45 to 50 domestic and 80 international flights daily. Starting tomorrow, daily domestic flights will average 50 to 60 while international will remain at 80, for an average daily flights of 140.

Following its outsourcing program on October 1 that led to the separation of more than 2,300 workers, PAL had to reduce domestic flights by 30 percent, while international flights were down 12 percent.

The reduction came shortly after an illegal work stoppage staged by its workers prior to the implementation of the airline’s outsourcing plan.

In-flight operations were likewise hampered when separated workers encamped at the gates of PAL’s Inflight Center along MIA Road, Pasay City, denying the carrier’s employees and service providers access to the facility.

PAL filed criminal charges of grave coercion against 41 former employees in the Pasay City prosecutor’s office over an October 29 incident when protesters barred a PAL truck from leaving the facility’s premises.

The airline charged that members of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association began a blockade of the Inflight Center on Sept. 28 to protest the outsourcing program. The facility houses the airline’s cabin services department and in-flight kitchen where meals for PAL flights are prepared. (FREEMAN)