Philippine Airlines Downgrades Canadian Routes

The latest published airline schedules reveal that Philippine Airlines is planning to downgrade its Canadian routes. The airline currently operates a daily flight to Vancouver with three weekly flights that continue from Vancouver on to Toronto using a Boeing 777 aircraft. However, the airline plans to downgrade its Canadian routes to the A340 beginning in September.

Copyright Photo: Angelo Agcamaran/PPSG
After the Philippines regained Category 1 status from the US Federal Aviation Administration, the airline revealed plans to deploy its Boeing 777 fleet to San Francisco and Los Angeles. PAL deployed its 777 fleet on a daily service to Los Angeles on May 4 with four weekly 777 flights to San Francisco scheduled to commence on July 1.

The Boeing 777 aircraft currently operates PAL routes to London Heathrow, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, and Toronto. But the six 777 aircraft in the Philippine Airlines fleet are insufficient to completely cover all of the flights operated to these destinations. As PAL retires the Boeing 747 from its last three remaining weekly flights to San Francisco at the end of August, the Boeing 777 will be redeployed from Canadian routes to cover the daily San Francisco flight.

The Boeing 777 aircraft is the flagship of the Philippine Airlines fleet featuring 370 seats in a bi-class configuration with lie-flat seats in Business Class and personal in-flight entertainment throughout the entire aircraft. The much older 254-seat A340-300 aircraft also has a bi-class configuration but lacks the modern amenities of the Boeing 777. Philippine Airlines recently acquired these aircraft used from Spanish carrier Iberia in a leasing arrangement with Airbus. The aircraft has the old recliner style Business Class seats and "main screen" in-flight entertainment. 

The A340-300 flights will begin on September 1. Canadian passengers embarking in Toronto will likely be disappointed that they must endure an older aircraft with main screen entertainment for a journey that exceeds 15 hours. For Vancouver bound flights, PR116 will depart four times weekly at 7:00pm arriving in Vancouver at 4:15pm. The return flight, PR117 will depart Vancouver at 11:45pm, arriving back in Manila at 4:35am (+2). For Toronto bound flights, PR118 departs Manila three times weekly at 3:00pm, arriving in Vancouver at 12:15pm, and continuing onto Toronto at 1:45pm. The aircraft finally touches down in Toronto at 9:05pm. The return flight, PR119, departs Toronto for Vancouver at 10:35pm. It arrives in Vancouver at 12:35am (+1) before departing back to Manila at 1:50am. The flight touches down in Manila at 6:40am (+2).

Philippine Airlines is likely timing the downgrading of its Canadian routes to the end of the busy summer season. Summer in the northern hemisphere extends through August and is a time when many overseas Filipinos residing in Canada and the United States return home to visit friends and relatives. There are currently 33,000 Filipinos that hold permanent resident visas in Canada, with Tagalog declared as the fastest growing foreign language group in Canada. Trade between the Philippines and Canada recently climbed to $1.7 billion. Canada was one of the first countries to respond to the Super Typhoon Haiyan disaster donating $85 million in aid.

14 comments:

  1. ...so buy more Boeing 777-300ER, and/or Airbus A350.

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    1. PAL will have a delicate balance to consider when ordering: cost-efficiency and production slots. On one hand, the Boeing 77X and A350 have an edge over the former. Whilst the 777-300ERs are fuel efficient now, they won't be so in 5 or more years relative to what is out there. But on the other hand, the 777-300ERs have an edge over the latter. This is critical because our Cat 1 status can be revoked at anytime. Maybe by the time the A350/77X will be delivered to PAL at the earliest, we may be back at Cat 2; at least the 777-300ER is grandfathered no matter what.

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  2. Am so dissapointed with this update from pal after booking a flight this septembet-october from toronto-vanvouver-manila..never can imagine how this will affect filipinos in toronto like me traveling a longhaul flight of 14-15hours without personal flight enternment system in the economy seats..now am thinking if cancelling our flight with pal abd book with much cheaper and bettee airlines.! Its not Enjoyable anymore flying with pal with this downgrade aircraft..

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  3. Buti na lang hindi pa ako nagbook ng flight ko sa October. Kung nagkataon, parusa ang 18 to 20 hours na flight. Biruin mo walang sariling tv sa seat mo. E sardinas na nga loob ng eroplano, tapos wala pang personal tv, tapos mas mahal pa kesa Korean Air or Eva Air. Ok lang kayo PAL icancel nyo na lang yang Toronto route ninyo. Nakakahiya lang sa mga ibang lahi na sasakay sa eroplano ninyo. Balik Cathay na ako

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  4. I dont care if Airbus340 is an old airplane..what my concern now is how will my 2 little kids enjoy this flight in september without playing computer games and watching childrens channel in this 9"tv monitor screen in economy seats.Its NOT FUN flying with PAL anymore! I will have our flight cancel with this aircraft downgrade and fly with EVA or CATHAY that have personal entertainment in economy seats.how i wish Air Canada can have manila route asap!

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  5. From news releases, I gather that PAL intends to provide internet access to your personal iphones/ipads which will stream movies/games/music etc., and for those without thes devices, ipads for rent? Considering most people have smart phones and most households got ipads, better don't forget to take them with you when you fly PAL's A340 from Toronto to Manila

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    1. Even if they stream movies/games/musci etc to your iPad and iPhones, they dont have USB ports in each seats to support an 18 hour flight... I remembered turning on my laptop so I could charge my phone for the duration of the flight during my MNL-LAX a month a go with the A340's. And with a baby on-board, this is a sad news... Que triste!!!

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  6. china eastern,air canada ,korean airline,eva air and cathay pacific this airlines are fyling aircrafts with personal individual touchscreen tv monitor in every economy seats, AND much more cheaper than Philippine Airlines serving Canada routes and with OLD aircraft A340 without personal Audio Video On Demand (AVOD) sino pa kaya ang sasakay sa PAL from YYZ-YVR-MNL???

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  7. Does that mean that they'll be using the A340 to NY since that flight will stop over at Vancouver? Hope to God no...

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  8. Pal is fucking ensane!!! 18hours flight from toronto and manila is NOT A JOKE have some little considerations with your passengers from Toronto...Let B777-300ER contimue to fly in CANADA!!!!

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  9. Pal is way tooooo expensive than the other airlines...Why would Toronto passengers fly with old sircraft and pay higher fare if we can fly with bigger aircraft and lower fare!!! Come on..Philippine Airlines!!!!

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  10. Was actually planning to book a flight to MNL in September, but this definitely swayed my decision to fly Korean Air or Cathy instead. 20hrs on the A340 that's 15 years old is not pleasant. Might as well cancel the YYZ, YVR and MNL flights..

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  11. True, the flight is rather long without IFE at each seat, just do remember that the 2-4-2 seating is far more preferable than 3-4-3 (or worse). Those 343 aircraft are comfortable (my first longhaul was on a Cathay 343) and have done more than a handful on these birds from YVR. Just please don't tag a US destination to a Canadian one, please!

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  12. Good news, PAL will be reverting back to their boeing 777 for the vancouver flights http://airlineroute.net/2014/08/06/pr-yvryyz-sep14update2/

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