SNeha-J-AeroSoft: http://philippines-aviation-news.blogspot.com/

1. Tiger Airways to offer travelers daily Cebu flights soon: official

WITH a more liberalized aviation policy recently signed in the Philippines, a new player in the low-cost carrier sector will soon be offering daily flights out of Cebu to Singapore.

Tiger Airways will be flying daily to and from Singapore next month, senior manager of the airline’s corporate communications office Sharon Cheong announced.

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

Cheong, who recently visited Sun.Star Cebu’s offices, believes their cheap fares will benefit both Cebu and Singapore’s tourism industries.

The Singapore-based airline was established in 2004 and currently has a fleet size of 26 Airbus A320-family aircraft. Its operations span 30 destinations in 12 countries in the Asia Pacific region.

The airline began offering flights out of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport to Singapore since Tuesday.

That what sets them apart is that they don’t want passengers to pay for things they don’t want like extra luggage and other add-ons.

No compromise

“But we don’t compromise on security, punctuality and passenger saftey.
These qualities make traveling “accessible” for those who want to go on business and leisure trips.

Aside from Cebu, Tiger Airways also flies direct to Singapore from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Clark International Airport and Davao.

To promote the airline they have special rates for those who book flights from Sept. 8 to 14. Clients who book within the period pay P1,404 for a one-way ticket to Singapore, excluding charges, for travel from Oct.1 to Dec.15. While they will be offering daily flights next month, they currently offer flights on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

It was best to take advantage of the promo, saying going to Singapore is great way to spend Christmas in the tropics. Cheong said Orchard Road is transformed during Christmas time and that Singaporeans begin decorating for Christmas in October.

While Tiger Airways does not have its own ticketing office yet, Cheong said they are working with multiple travel agents to help clients book their flights.

She also assured that their online booking service is easy to use and that passengers will not have a hard time making their own bookings.

2. Hawaiian Holdings to Present at Deutsche Bank Aviation and Transportation Conference

Hawaiian has led all U.S. carriers in on-time performance for each of the past seven years (2004-2010) as reported by the U.S. Department of Transportation. In addition, consumer surveys by Conde Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure and Zagat have all ranked Hawaiian the top domestic airline offering flights to Hawaii. Hawaiian was also the nation's highest-ranked carrier for service quality and performance in the prestigious Airline Quality Rating (AQR) study for 2008 and 2009.

Now in its 82nd year of continuous service in Hawaii, Hawaiian is the largest provider of passenger air service to Hawaii from the state's primary visitor markets on the U.S. mainland. Hawaiian offers nonstop service to Hawaii from more U.S. gateway cities (10) than any other airline, as well as service to Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, American Samoa, and Tahiti. Hawaiian also provides approximately 150 daily jet flights between the Hawaiian Islands.

3. Nagging woes beset PHL tourism - WikiLeaks postings

Incompetent officials, unfavorable financing options, and protectionist policies have hobbled the country's tourism and transport sectors, according to cables uploaded by online whistleblower WikiLeaks.

These long-standing problems beset the agencies entrusted to newly-appointed Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez and Transportation and Communications Secretary Manuel Roxas II, the US embassy diplomatic cables posted on WikiLeaks revealed.

The WikiLeaks postings, from 2005 to 2010, tackled specific issues on airline safety, airport operations, inter-island shipping, and port management.

“Tourism has the potential to make an important contribution to Philippine economic development. Local economists have estimated that each foreign tourist who visits the Philippines for a week spends enough to pay the wages of one tourism-sector employee for one year," the US embassy in Manila was supposed to have inform the US State Department in Washington D.C.

Civil aviation standards

Several of the cables focused on the Philippine failure to comply with standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

“The Philippines was audited by the ICAO team on October 19, 2009 under the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme. The audit yielded 88 major findings that affected 278 out of 987 protocols, indicating a 28% 'lack of effective implementation' measure," according to one cable.

“Our contacts say the ICAO auditors were impressed by the CAAP's preparedness and ability to answer questions, but noted that the implementation of new rules was seriously lacking," it added.

The US embassy noted that the ICAO identified one “significant safety concern" which was the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines’ (CAAP) “prolonged conflict with the Civil Service Commission and the Department of Budget and Management regarding salary increases and qualification standards continues to delay progress."

There was also resistance to change from within the CAAP itself, according to a WikiLeaks post.

“CAAP Director General Ruben Ciron has been unable to push forward needed personnel changes. Long-term ATO (Air Transportation Office) employees absorbed into the CAAP have raised numerous legal challenges to further reforms, particularly any moves to replace unqualified employees with qualified ones," according to the cable signed by then-US Ambassador to Manila Kristie Kenney.

“Aviation industry sources believe these employees would lose opportunities for income (the fees they earn for certifying aircraft and pilots) and perhaps their jobs if the reforms were fully implemented, and so they resist the reforms as a matter of self-preservation," the WikiLeaks post continued.

“The issue of adequate salaries was supposed to be addressed in the legislation that created the CAAP. However, the old ATO employees have challenged the new qualifications and salary standards and insisted on the right to be re-trained and receive preference for employment at CAAP," it added.

US embassy officials were also supposedly advised by industry sources that the CAAP chief’s “lack of commercial aviation experience limits his ability to oversee operations and realistically evaluate progress towards regaining a Category 1 rating."

“According to these sources, there is no one on the CAAP governing board who understands civil aviation safety, security, and airline operations fully enough to accurately measure the progress of safety reforms," the WikieLeaks posting read.

The impact of the air safety downgrade on flag carrier Philippine Airlines was specifically cited and reported to Washington D.C.

4. Commercial aviation safety audit scheduled this December -- CAAP

THE PHILIPPINES is preparing for a fresh audit this December to be conducted by a team of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on the country’s commercial aviation safety systems, in hopes of regaining the "category 1" status it lost in 2008, the head of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said on Friday last week.
A rating upgrade, in turn, will open the door for Philippine air carriers either to mount or expand operations to the United States. Currently, only Philippine Airlines (PAL) maintains such routes.

The Philippines’ downgrade has been blamed for lower-than-expected visitor arrivals from the US, with the Philippine Travel Agencies Association saying last month that the tourism industry had foregone more than P66.3 billion since 2009 due to a lack of additional visitors from the US.

"[The] FAA technical review [is] scheduled [in] December," CAAP Director General Ramon S. Gutierrez said via text.

The FAA downgraded the Philippines’ civil aviation rating, citing policies and systems that were below standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) of the United Nations, including a lack of qualified safety personnel.

"A Category 2 rating means a country either lacks laws or regulations necessary to oversee air carriers in accordance with minimum international standards, or that its civil aviation authority -- equivalent to the FAA -- is deficient in one or more areas, such as technical expertise, trained personnel, record-keeping or inspection procedures," FAA had explained in January 2008 in announcing its action on the Philippines.

That "preparations are being made to address [FAA’s] findings and corrective actions are made to close open items [sic] until the scheduled visit."

He did not elaborate on measures.

FAA downgraded the Philippines to "category 2" from "category 1" in 2008 after a safety audit in November 2007. The Philippines had been in "category 1" since 2002 prior to the downgrade.

CAAP preparations since early this year have included training of safety inspectors which has been a key issue for the downgrade, Mr. Gutierrez told reporters last May.

PAL financed this training that was conducted by US-based aviation consultant Tim Neel & Associates, LLC, which CAAP had hired.

At present, only PAL flies to the US, connecting Manila to Las Vegas in Nevada, San Francisco and Los Angeles in California, and Honolulu in Hawaii.

Moreover, budget carrier Cebu Pacific, which is operated by listed Cebu Air, Inc., has financed CAAP’s joint initiative with Airbus to enhance airport navigation systems in local hubs like Iloilo, Puerto Princesa, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga.

In response to the FAA downgrade, the government enacted into law on March 4, 2008 Republic Act No. 9497, or the Civil Aviation Authority Act of 2008, replacing the deficient Air Transportation Office (ATO) with the CAAP.

Mr. Gutierrez had said in interviews last March and May that, after the FAA, his agency aims to invite teams from ICAO and the European Union (EU) in hopes of getting similar favorable action.

ICAO had designated the country as a "significant safety concern" in December 2009, while EU blacklisted the Philippines in April last year.

Last year, ICAO’s Coordinated Validation Mission scrapped its planned Dec. 7-10 audit, citing "operational concerns" -- in apparent reference to the change then in CAAP leadership.

Leaked diplomatic cables posted on the Internet last week by WikiLeaks recalled that an executive of Boeing Co., acting as an aviation consultant, told the US Embassy on March 19, 2008 that "in his opinion, regaining Category 1 would take at least one year after…three critical elements are in place."

The document identified these factors, as cited by the Boeing consultant, as appointing a head for the CAAP, hiring "qualified aviation inspectors" and putting in place a new computer system.

Three months later, the US Embassy said in a separate report that there had been "little progress" made by the country in addressing FAA’s concerns.

"Our meetings with Philippine government officials, airline owners and managers, and other involved persons suggest that little progress has been made on the return to Category 1," the cable read.

The cable also described the defunct ATO as a "corrupt organization," noting that funds meant to hire new inspectors were used to construct a new building inside the ATO complex instead.

But reforms needed to regain "Category 1" status were still not in place more than a year later, according to another cable dated July 1, 2009.

"The progress of the Philippine civil aviation regulator towards regaining…‘Category 1’ safety rating has been stymied by bureaucratic obstacles that block essential salary increases needed to attract and retain qualified personnel," the cable read.

"There is little chance of the Philippines regaining a Category 1 safety rating unless these issues are resolved," it added.