No returning pilots? No problem – PAL

By FIL C. SIONIL
August 8, 2010, 7:54pm
Manila Bulletin

Philippine Airlines (PAL) President Jaime Bautista Sunday assured the riding public that there will be no disruption in flights should the 26 pilots, who resigned in haste last week, refuse to heed their return-to-work offer.

“There will be no more disruptions (in flights) because we have already adjusted our schedules. We are back to normal,” Bautista told the Manila Bulletin.

This is being complemented by the training program for its “administrative pilots.” Bautista said five captains from the pool of administrative pilots so-called because they devote more hours doing administrative work than fly an aircraft, are currently undergoing training to fly A320.
In addition, he disclosed the management is set to promote within the month four first officers to captains.

With the adjusted schedules and new sets of pilots, Bautista expressed confidence that PAL’s passengers load factor may even improve to 90 percent from the prevailing 75 percent to 80 percent.
Stressing that standoff between the pilots and the management is “not a labor dispute” but rather an “administrative issue,” Bautista admitted that as of early evening Sunday there had been no overtures coming from the resigned flight crew or their representatives.

“They have until midnight of August 9. And if they don’t report for work, we will then do the necessary paper works for their termination,” he said.

Bautista said there is no need for PAL to “go to DoLE (Department of Labor and Employment)” should the resigned pilots fail to show up.

“We will file an administrative case against them in a regular court,” he said. The case would stem from the “accountability” of the pilots, on whom PAL spent millions of dollars for their training and, in turn, agreed to undertake a contract to stay with the airline for five years.

He described the pilots as “on AWOL (absence without leave)” since the resignation was done in haste and in violation of the 180-day prior notice policy as instituted by the Philippine Overseas Employment Authority under Circular 01, Series of 2006.

Bautista affirmed, albeit, reluctantly that there was a bit of demoralization with the flight crew because of the move of Air Philippines, a sister-company with PAL Holdings Inc. as the parent company, which owned by business tycoon Lucio Tan, to expand operations by ordering four additional A320.
Add to this, the fact that two of the A320 aircrafts of PAL were repainted as Air Philippines and reconfigured from 150 to 176 seats and the issue of spin-offs of some of its operations such as in-flight catering.

These were raised by the airline staff and crew during a meeting with Bautista last week.
He explained that the process was undertaken to allow Air Philippines to meet stiff competition in the domestic operations. “The growth in the domestic market is such that consumers are looking for cheaper fare. We have to adapt to low cost model,” he said.

He narrated that those who were present at the meeting sought “more transparency from the management,” to which Bautista committed to have “proper dialogue” as well address some of the issues raised such as review of the remuneration.

However, he stressed that PAL management would not be able to provide the same salary scale given by other regional airlines because the flag carrier just emerged from its rehabilitation program.