Villar bill to protect airline passengers

Sen. Manny Villar has filed a bill that will establish a national policy of fair treatment for airline passengers.

In filing the "Airline Passenger Fairness Act" at the Senate, Villar cited the need to protect the interest of airplane passengers in the country as well as improve the quality of service provided by the air industry.

"The significant volume of airline passengers in the country makes it necessary to protect their rights as consumers," said Villar.

Among the problems and difficulties faced by passengers, says Villar, are poor service, delay and cancellation of flights, baggage loss, disappearance of reservations and many more.

Under his proposal, unfair and deceptive practices and unfair methods of competition will be prohibited.

Meanwhile, Philippine Airlines’ fleet of Boeing 737 and 747 aircraft are not equipped with the fuel pumps identified by the US Federal Aviation Administration as a potential hazard, local aviation authorities declared yesterday.

An inspection by the Air Transportation Office on Monday found the flag carrier’s 10 B737 jets — seven Series 300s and three Series 400s — to be "airworthy."

"Therefore, we are giving those planes a clean bill of health," ATO chief Adelberto Yap said.

Meanwhile, PAL’s four B747-400s passed a similar inspection conducted by the local unit of the world-leading German aircraft maintenance provider Lufthansa Technik.

In a report to PAL, Rainer Conrads, vice president for technical services of Lufthansa Technik Philippines (LTP), said that "no affected fuel pumps" are installed on the airline’s B747-400 aircraft.