Business Mirror
May 14, 2012
DOMESTIC passenger air traffic in the first quarter of the year, aided by aggressive pricing strategies of airlines, rose by 13 percent to 5.16 million compared to 4.57 million a year ago, data from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) showed.
CAB Executive Director Carmelo Arcilla said the growth was expected as the airlines continued to raise seat capacities and flight frequencies. “But their promotional fares did help a lot. It’s a major factor as to why this industry is growing,” he added.
Cebu Pacific, the airline unit of conglomerate JG Summit, recorded the most number of passengers at 2,374,599 out of the 3,110,870 seats allocated for the period. This represented a load factor of 76 percent from January to March of this year.
In the same period last year, Cebu Pacific recorded 1,948,307 domestic passengers, representing a load factor of 81 percent, out of the 2,391,113 allocated seats.
According to Candice Iyog, Cebu Pacific vice president for marketing and distribution, the continued growth in its passenger traffic was mainly due to its increased flight frequencies apart from discounted fares it offered.
Philippine Airlines (PAL) came in second with 1,085,533 passengers at end-March this year, lower than the 1,522,546 recorded in the same period a year ago.
A total of 1,471,336 seats were allocated for the first three months of the year, representing a load factor of 74 percent.
Load factor represents the number of seats occupied during a flight.
Airphil Express, the low-cost partner of PAL, recorded 1,069.765 passengers from January to March this year, up 890,384 passengers recorded in the same period last year.
Its load factor stood at 73 percent from 75 percent in the first quarter of 2011. The airline allocated 1,470,228 seats at end-March this year as against 1,186,037 seats in the same period a year ago.
Zest Airways, formerly Asian Spirit, also reported higher passenger numbers at 626,952 from 517,939. From a load factor of 76 percent at end-March last year, this went down to 72 percent in the first quarter this year.
Seair recorded a drop in passenger traffic to 10,037 passengers from 46,879 passengers. Consequently, the load factor went down to 76 percent from 77 percent.
Airphil Express is 99-percent owned by the Lucio Tan Group. PAL, however, is 95 percent owned by Tan.
The five airlines transported a total of 45,742,570 kilograms (kgs) in the first quarter versus 39,806,065 kgs in the same period last year.
Cebu Pacific transported 22.08 million kgs; PAL, 12.51 million kgs; Airphil, 6.09 million kgs; ZestAir, 4.97 million kgs; and Seair, 67,631 kgs.
Showing posts with label air philippines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label air philippines. Show all posts
Monday, May 14, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
Air Philippines seeks renewal of local permit
Business World
May 7, 2012
AIR PHILIPPINES Corp., which owns budget carrier Airphil Express, is seeking a permit from regulators to extend its domestic operation for another five years, documents from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) showed.
A document dated May 3 showed that Airphil Express applied for “certificate of public conveyance and necessity (CPCN) to operate scheduled domestic air transportation services.”
“Notice is hereby given that Airphil Express has filed with a CAB a petition for a renewal of its CPCN to operate domestic air transportation services,” the document read.
A hearing has been set on May 23 at the CAB office in Pasay City, the document showed.
“Parties opposed to the granting of application must file their written position on or before the date of the hearing...” the document read.
Ma. Alben S.L. Moro, the head of CAB’s hearing division, said in a text message yesterday that Airphil Express’ permit for domestic operations is set to expire this year, adding that permits as such are renewed every five years.
The airline, an affiliate of Philippine Airlines, currently operates 32 regular flights to local destinations in the country and five international routes, the company said in a statement last week.
Alfredo A. Herrera, Airphil Express’ former senior vice-president, earlier said that the carrier is looking to book as much as P11 billion in revenues this year as it gears up to offer more domestic and international flights.
The company, almost doubled its revenue last year to about P8 billion, from P4 billion in 2010.
The company is also hoping to double its passenger traffic to 8 million this year from 3.8 million last year on the back of the additional flights and growth in the travel market.
May 7, 2012
AIR PHILIPPINES Corp., which owns budget carrier Airphil Express, is seeking a permit from regulators to extend its domestic operation for another five years, documents from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) showed.
A document dated May 3 showed that Airphil Express applied for “certificate of public conveyance and necessity (CPCN) to operate scheduled domestic air transportation services.”
“Notice is hereby given that Airphil Express has filed with a CAB a petition for a renewal of its CPCN to operate domestic air transportation services,” the document read.
A hearing has been set on May 23 at the CAB office in Pasay City, the document showed.
“Parties opposed to the granting of application must file their written position on or before the date of the hearing...” the document read.
Ma. Alben S.L. Moro, the head of CAB’s hearing division, said in a text message yesterday that Airphil Express’ permit for domestic operations is set to expire this year, adding that permits as such are renewed every five years.
The airline, an affiliate of Philippine Airlines, currently operates 32 regular flights to local destinations in the country and five international routes, the company said in a statement last week.
Alfredo A. Herrera, Airphil Express’ former senior vice-president, earlier said that the carrier is looking to book as much as P11 billion in revenues this year as it gears up to offer more domestic and international flights.
The company, almost doubled its revenue last year to about P8 billion, from P4 billion in 2010.
The company is also hoping to double its passenger traffic to 8 million this year from 3.8 million last year on the back of the additional flights and growth in the travel market.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
AirphilExpress return to SoKor remains on hold; CAB to meet with counterpart
Business Mirror
February 2, 2012
By Lenie Lectura
AIRPHILEXPRESS’ plan to resume flights to Incheon will continue to be put on hold until aviation officials are able to secure a schedule for a meeting with their counterparts in South Korea.
The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) planned to meet this week authorities from South Korea to appeal a decision that denied AirphilExpress’ application to launch flights to the gateway of the Seoul capital. But the agency, said Executive Director Carmelo Arcilla, has yet to schedule a meeting.
“Obviously, the meeting will be delayed because there is no definite schedule when [it] will take place. But we are working on it so that we can address the issue,” said Arcilla in a phone interview yesterday.
AirphilExpress stopped servicing the Manila-Incheon route six years ago but formalized its intention to return last year. South Korea denied this application, citing the ban imposed by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the European Union and the International Civil Aviation Organizations (ICAO) on the Philippines.
The FAA had placed the country in “Category 2 safety status” in January 2008. This effectively prohibits local carriers from expanding operations in the US. The ICAO, meanwhile, cited the Philippines as one of the countries with serious safety concerns.
“But those with existing flights to South Korea like Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines are not prohibited by the South Korean government to fly there,” said Arcilla. “It only covers those that are operating for the first time and they considered AirphilExpress as a new operator because of the fact that it stopped operating.”
While AirphilExpress’ application was denied, the CAB granted Jin Air to fly the Incheon-Kalibo route until the middle of February.
The CAB’s decision to allow Jin Air into the country is based on the premise of equal opportunity in accordance with Executive Order (EO) 29, the policy implementing “open skies.”
Under the rules of the said EO, third, fourth and fifth freedom rights are allowed. This means foreign airlines can mount flights to and from any airports in the country, except the already congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport, without restrictions on frequency, capacity and type of aircraft.
The rules are meant to attract foreign airlines to operate to the country’s secondary gateways, which are largely underserved or totally unserved by both international and local airlines.
“AirphilExpress complained that there is no reciprocity and Filipino carriers are not given equal opportunity. We want to seek a dialogue with the South Korean government as soon as possible,” added Arcilla.
February 2, 2012
By Lenie Lectura
AIRPHILEXPRESS’ plan to resume flights to Incheon will continue to be put on hold until aviation officials are able to secure a schedule for a meeting with their counterparts in South Korea.
The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) planned to meet this week authorities from South Korea to appeal a decision that denied AirphilExpress’ application to launch flights to the gateway of the Seoul capital. But the agency, said Executive Director Carmelo Arcilla, has yet to schedule a meeting.
“Obviously, the meeting will be delayed because there is no definite schedule when [it] will take place. But we are working on it so that we can address the issue,” said Arcilla in a phone interview yesterday.
AirphilExpress stopped servicing the Manila-Incheon route six years ago but formalized its intention to return last year. South Korea denied this application, citing the ban imposed by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the European Union and the International Civil Aviation Organizations (ICAO) on the Philippines.
The FAA had placed the country in “Category 2 safety status” in January 2008. This effectively prohibits local carriers from expanding operations in the US. The ICAO, meanwhile, cited the Philippines as one of the countries with serious safety concerns.
“But those with existing flights to South Korea like Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines are not prohibited by the South Korean government to fly there,” said Arcilla. “It only covers those that are operating for the first time and they considered AirphilExpress as a new operator because of the fact that it stopped operating.”
While AirphilExpress’ application was denied, the CAB granted Jin Air to fly the Incheon-Kalibo route until the middle of February.
The CAB’s decision to allow Jin Air into the country is based on the premise of equal opportunity in accordance with Executive Order (EO) 29, the policy implementing “open skies.”
Under the rules of the said EO, third, fourth and fifth freedom rights are allowed. This means foreign airlines can mount flights to and from any airports in the country, except the already congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport, without restrictions on frequency, capacity and type of aircraft.
The rules are meant to attract foreign airlines to operate to the country’s secondary gateways, which are largely underserved or totally unserved by both international and local airlines.
“AirphilExpress complained that there is no reciprocity and Filipino carriers are not given equal opportunity. We want to seek a dialogue with the South Korean government as soon as possible,” added Arcilla.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Safety issues still hound Tiger
The Philippine Star
HIDDEN AGENDA By Mary Ann Ll. Reyes
July 13, 2011 12:00 AM
There had been newspaper reports that Singaporean budget carrier Tiger Airways will launch direct flights between Singapore and Cebu. The latter will be Tiger’s second destination in the Philippines, after Manila.
Tiger has recently been embroiled in controversy, especially after Philippine carriers led by Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, and Air Philippines, complained that Tiger’s marketing arrangement with local carrier Seair basically amounts to exercise of cabotage, a right exclusive to wholly Filipino owned carriers.
But this is not the only issue that Tiger needs to explain, at least to the Filipino people.
International media has reported that Tiger Airways has been grounded by Australian authorities until August, as they continue investigations into safety concerns.
Safety investigators are examining why a navigational database used by Tiger contained the wrong information, causing one of its planes to fly below safe altitude levels.
Last month a Tiger Airbus 320 flew below air traffic control’s lowest safe descent altitude of 2,500 while approaching Melbourne airport.
The pilots failed to notice the navigational mistake when they cross-checked the navigation information with their paper version, but the plane managed to land safely after Air Traffic Control corrected the pilots.
A preliminary report into the Melbourne airport incident from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has found the error was due to an incorrect altitude in the plane’s commercial navigational database.
A similar incident also happened with a second plane.
Tiger has been thrown into turmoil in recent days, with its chief executive Crawford Rix recently announcing he would resign. His replacement, Tony Davis, is the group president of Tiger Airways Holdings and the man who was sent from Singapore to lead the talks with CASA.
NCIP bucks P-Noy on mining
The 43-member strong Brooke’s Point Tribal Leaders Federation (BPTLF) representing some 3,000 indigenous people from Palawan are complaining about the fact that the same government office that is tasked to protect their interest is the same one sabotaging it.
This is because the National Commission for Indigenous People (NCIP) has continued to deny the issuance of a certificate of pre-condition (CPC), a social acceptability document for MacroAsia Corp., whose mining operations in the municipality of Brooke’s Point is seen as the people’s last hope for the future future.
President Aquino, in a recent visit to Palawan, has said that he will support whatever is the position of the communities and that while they stand to economically benefit from mining projects, they are also the ones to suffer if anything goes wrong.
But the NCIP seems to have its own agenda. MacroAsia’s CPC has not been acted upon despite the fact that 883 of the 910 registered indigenous families in Brooke’s Point’s six barangays to be directly affected by the operations have already highly recommended the mining project.
According to BPTLF leaders, NCIP chairperson Zenaida Pawid and commissioner Dionesia Banua are obviously hell-bent on withholding or finally denying the document for MacroAsia.
BPTLF president Renila Dulay and vice president Agustin Bacosa, who also heads the Southern Palawan Tribal Communities, are also complaining about how Pawid has been maltreating them.
Believing that the NCIP would continue to delay the issuance of the CPC, the tribal leaders have written President Aquino asking him to finally order the granting of the certificate to MacroAsia. They have also sought the ouster of Banua and reconsider the chairmanship of Pawid.
Twice, in full force, they came to Manila to literally beg on their knees before the NCIP commissioners meeting en banc. On both occasions, they were given the run-around.
They are also complaining that Banua’s husband who holds a driver’s item at NCIP was made a part of the validating team and was the only member who refused to sign the validation report for obvious reasons – he supports his wife-commissioner’s stand not to allow mining in their province.
The CPC serves as the social acceptance document for the mining project which should been issued 15 days upon submission of the report dated April 28, 2010 on the FPIC undertaken in March 2010. The FPIC report has been gathering dust at the office of Banua.
TARLAC said that based on the initial evaluation of their lawyers on the information they got from the BPTLF and newsreport, the NCIP officials could be charged with violations of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standard for Government Employees (RA 6713) Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019).
For comments, e-mail at philstarhiddenagenda@yahoo.com
HIDDEN AGENDA By Mary Ann Ll. Reyes
July 13, 2011 12:00 AM
There had been newspaper reports that Singaporean budget carrier Tiger Airways will launch direct flights between Singapore and Cebu. The latter will be Tiger’s second destination in the Philippines, after Manila.
Tiger has recently been embroiled in controversy, especially after Philippine carriers led by Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, and Air Philippines, complained that Tiger’s marketing arrangement with local carrier Seair basically amounts to exercise of cabotage, a right exclusive to wholly Filipino owned carriers.
But this is not the only issue that Tiger needs to explain, at least to the Filipino people.
International media has reported that Tiger Airways has been grounded by Australian authorities until August, as they continue investigations into safety concerns.
Safety investigators are examining why a navigational database used by Tiger contained the wrong information, causing one of its planes to fly below safe altitude levels.
Last month a Tiger Airbus 320 flew below air traffic control’s lowest safe descent altitude of 2,500 while approaching Melbourne airport.
The pilots failed to notice the navigational mistake when they cross-checked the navigation information with their paper version, but the plane managed to land safely after Air Traffic Control corrected the pilots.
A preliminary report into the Melbourne airport incident from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has found the error was due to an incorrect altitude in the plane’s commercial navigational database.
A similar incident also happened with a second plane.
Tiger has been thrown into turmoil in recent days, with its chief executive Crawford Rix recently announcing he would resign. His replacement, Tony Davis, is the group president of Tiger Airways Holdings and the man who was sent from Singapore to lead the talks with CASA.
NCIP bucks P-Noy on mining
The 43-member strong Brooke’s Point Tribal Leaders Federation (BPTLF) representing some 3,000 indigenous people from Palawan are complaining about the fact that the same government office that is tasked to protect their interest is the same one sabotaging it.
This is because the National Commission for Indigenous People (NCIP) has continued to deny the issuance of a certificate of pre-condition (CPC), a social acceptability document for MacroAsia Corp., whose mining operations in the municipality of Brooke’s Point is seen as the people’s last hope for the future future.
President Aquino, in a recent visit to Palawan, has said that he will support whatever is the position of the communities and that while they stand to economically benefit from mining projects, they are also the ones to suffer if anything goes wrong.
But the NCIP seems to have its own agenda. MacroAsia’s CPC has not been acted upon despite the fact that 883 of the 910 registered indigenous families in Brooke’s Point’s six barangays to be directly affected by the operations have already highly recommended the mining project.
According to BPTLF leaders, NCIP chairperson Zenaida Pawid and commissioner Dionesia Banua are obviously hell-bent on withholding or finally denying the document for MacroAsia.
BPTLF president Renila Dulay and vice president Agustin Bacosa, who also heads the Southern Palawan Tribal Communities, are also complaining about how Pawid has been maltreating them.
Believing that the NCIP would continue to delay the issuance of the CPC, the tribal leaders have written President Aquino asking him to finally order the granting of the certificate to MacroAsia. They have also sought the ouster of Banua and reconsider the chairmanship of Pawid.
Twice, in full force, they came to Manila to literally beg on their knees before the NCIP commissioners meeting en banc. On both occasions, they were given the run-around.
They are also complaining that Banua’s husband who holds a driver’s item at NCIP was made a part of the validating team and was the only member who refused to sign the validation report for obvious reasons – he supports his wife-commissioner’s stand not to allow mining in their province.
The CPC serves as the social acceptance document for the mining project which should been issued 15 days upon submission of the report dated April 28, 2010 on the FPIC undertaken in March 2010. The FPIC report has been gathering dust at the office of Banua.
TARLAC said that based on the initial evaluation of their lawyers on the information they got from the BPTLF and newsreport, the NCIP officials could be charged with violations of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standard for Government Employees (RA 6713) Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019).
For comments, e-mail at philstarhiddenagenda@yahoo.com
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