Philippine Airlines' London Schedule Improves

Philippine Airlines got a badly needed boost for its London flights after Heathrow Airport announced that it would provide the carrier with "prime time" landing slots at one of Europe's busiest gateways. Passengers flying on PAL with onward connections to destinations in the Philippines, the United Kingdom, or Europe are now able to connect seamlessly to connecting services as the new flight times will provide greater convenience and cut down on travel times. 

Copyright Photo: Chris Chen/Flickr
Under the new time slots, Philippine Airlines will be able to depart London at approximately 11:00am, which would enable the carrier to land in Manila at 9:30am. This would provide passengers with plenty of opportunities to board connecting flights to domestic destinations throughout the Philippines. 

The flight to London would depart Manila at 11:00pm, arriving in London at 7:00am. For business travellers, the flights are ideal as passengers can sleep for the majority of the thirteen hour flight, arriving refreshed early in the morning for a day of business in London. 

The new schedule also enables passengers coming from provincial destinations such as Boracay Island, Cebu, or Davao to board a morning or afternoon domestic flight and connect to the London flight in Manila on the same day. Those travelling to other parts of the United Kingdom or Europe will have plenty of time to catch connecting flights from London Heathrow as well.

Philippine Airlines was at a competitive disadvantage up until the announcement as its old schedule was not timed strategically for connecting flights. Flights used to depart Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila early at 7:10am, preventing passengers from several provincial destinations from flying in on the same day to connect to the London flight. Many passengers who did were forced to fly in the day before and spend a night in a Manila hotel at the expense of the passenger. 

In addition, the 3:30pm arrival in London limited the ability of passengers to connect to onward flights bound for other destinations in the region. For business travellers, the scheduling was particularly inconvenient as they would need to wait until the following day before they could commence their business activities. 

However, the new schedule opens up many new opportunities for passengers on connecting flights and also provides Philippine Airlines with an opportunity to attract connecting traffic from Australia, with transiting in Manila onwards to London. The new schedule is expected to be implemented later this year when Philippine Airlines releases its winter schedule. It is most likely that flights will continue to be operated by A340-300 aircraft. 

Meanwhile, Ramon Ang is no longer signing official documents as ownership and management of Philippine Airlines shifts from San Miguel Corporation to the Lucio Tan Group. Former Philippine Airlines President Jamie Bautista is currently functioning as the carrier's General Manager, while it is believed that Joseph Chua will become the new President of the company.

5 comments:

  1. Now PAL, make a good marketing strategy in Europe to sell the Philippines leisure and travel market to the Europeans by lowering your fares, giving generous discounts, improving Philippine airports (Europeans, Americans and all foreigners do not like to see lots of airport (NAIA, for example)personnel in polo barongs just staring at passengers in the arrival area). For a real good inflight service, copy what the profitable airlines do (you can even upstage them); besides, it is legal. You advertise your so-called "home in the sky" in London and other European cities, so make sure you do not falter. For the most important market - Pinoy passengers, tell your aircraft crews not to snub or run away when they need help! Pinoy crews at Cathay Pacific and Singapore Air do not have these "egoistic attitudes", so your inflight crews, PAL, must learn it by heart and if does not work with them, then they are not supposed to be serving in the sky so let them go away, maybe they may want to become domestic helpers somewhere. This has been a negative topic by passengers about PAL crews since time immemorial! So kick the bad habit now! Last but not least, passengers do not want to hear from inflight crews: I am sorry, there's no more toilet soap or toilet paper, pillow, drinking water, coffee with cream, Kleenex, toothbrush, etc. Remember, Pinoys want to be kings or queens in the sky after each long and arduous job struggles and hardships in Europe, so give them a chance to be kings and queens for a flight! That's the way to retain their loyalty with you PAL!

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  2. And if PAL would be able to hurdle competition with numerous popular airlines, London to Southeast Asia is a very profitable route. Compete neck to neck so that you will grab the dough!

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  3. How about PAL coming to Frankfurt. I´m still waitig!

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  4. so is this true after all...i havent seen changes in yhe winter schedule

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  5. they didn't even implement it :P

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