PAL resumes vital cargo services

MANILA, Philippines—Philippine Airlines (PAL) has resumed cargo services in all its domestic, regional and intercontinental flights operating out of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2 in Manila.

The airline said it was confident that its operations would go back to normal before the end of the month, after its flights were crippled last month by an unannounced work stoppage by its workers.

“We’re now accepting cargo bookings for all international flights including wide-body domestic flights that operate out of Terminal 2,” PAL president Jaime J. Bautista said in a statement.

“It’s another concrete sign that PAL has turned the corner towards normalizing our operations after the transition phase of our outsourcing program,” he added.

PAL cargo operations had been suspended since the September 27 work stoppage staged by PAL Employees’ Association (Palea), which represents the workers PAL retrenched last October 1.

PAL International Cargo terminal beside NAIA 2 is now accepting cargo bookings for all PAL flights, except those operating at Terminal 3.

The resumption of cargo operations comes just over a week after PAL implemented a wide-ranging corporate restructuring program that involved the outsourcing of, among others, PAL Cargo.

PAL’s cargo operations are now handled by Sky Logistics.

“The resumption of cargo service is a boon to freight forwarders and exporters who benefit from the flag carrier’s high-capacity, wide-body aircraft and extensive domestic and international network,” said Bautista.

Among the first to be loaded in PAL’s cargo belly are 100 boxes of bananas from ABS-CBN Davao that were shipped to ABS CBN Foundation in Manila.

Carried on PR814, the non-revenue cargo was consigned to ABS CBN’s Sagip Kapamilya for distribution to flood victims in Tarlac and Calumpit, Bulacan.

PAL is one of the country’s most important cargo carriers, airlifting 139,284 tons last fiscal year (2010-2011), or about 382 tons daily (212 tons-international and 170 tons-domestic).

This represents a 9-percent increase over the previous fiscal year.

From Terminal 2, PAL operates international flights of varying frequencies to 25 destinations in 14 countries and territories. It also flies from Mactan International Airport in Cebu to two international points.

In the domestic sector, PAL currently flies to 20 domestic points.

Cargo shippers prefer the large belly capacity of PAL aircraft that are deployed on major domestic trunk routes, making PAL the only local airline that operates wide-body airplanes in the domestic sector.