PAL holiday bookings up; passengers welcome Palace appeal to PALEA

PAL said it recorded a 10 percent increase from year-ago levels in confirmed bookings for the month of December, the peak season of holiday travel, indicating strong passenger confidence in PAL's continued operations.

PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said the flag carrier's sales department noted a significant uptick in confirmed bookings especially after Malacanang, through Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Jr., made a public appeal to the PAL Employees Association (PALEA) to defer any work stoppage while the Palace exhausts all means to resolve the PAL-PALEA labor tiff.

Ochoa on Wednesday also cautioned PALEA against holding a strike as this could further complicate the ongoing labor dispute in the airline. Earlier, the PAL workers' union held a strike vote whose legal basis was questioned by the flag carrier.

Villaluna said close to 90 percent of PAL's booked passengers have been issued confirmed tickets for Manila-inbound flights, indicative of the travelers' trust in PAL's ability to fly them to their respective destinations.

"Many of our inbound passengers finalized their travel plans after Malacanang's appeal to PALEA. Most of them are hopeful that through Malacanang's intercession and PALEA's cooperation - 'in the spirit of Christmas' - they would be able to spend the holidays with their loved ones," Villaluna said.

Based on sales data, almost all flights coming from the United States are full, registering the highest number of forward bookings, followed by those coming from Australia.

PAL's traditionally packed flights every December are those coming from North America, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Between Christmas and New Year, PAL's airplanes are filled with vacationers bound for Kalibo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore and China.

Last year, PAL carried some 9.2 million passengers or an average of 25,630 passengers per day. This number goes up by as much as 30 percent with the onset of the Christmas peak season as thousands of tourists, balikbayans and OFWS flock home to spend Christmas with their families.

PAL assured its passengers of normal operations even as it questioned the legality of PALEA's strike vote. "While the strike vote threatens to spoil the holiday travel plans of thousands of Filipinos, PAL is exerting all efforts to ensure continued safe and reliable service," said Villaluna.

Fortunately, she said the strike vote did not cause any flight cancellations and no significant withdrawal of passenger bookings have been noted.

"We would like reiterate our advice our passengers to please come to the airport early - at least two hours before the intended departure time - to avoid long queues and other inconveniences that usually occur during this time of the year," said Villaluna.

"With heavy traffic, huge volume of passengers and tighter security checks as the holiday season nears, we would like to request our passengers to devote enough lead time when going to the airport. Please ensure that tickets and all travel documents are in order prior to approaching the check in counters," she said.