Domestic operators Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific are experiencing delays in the repair of jet engines made by aviation supplier Pratt & Whitney, leaving them with no choice but to take some of their aircraft out of service.
Flight interruptions that have plagued the country’s airlines due to the grounding of bigger aircraft in their fleets have no instant fix, so the only viable remedy to alleviate their predicament for now is to reduce the number of flights, according to the Civil Aeronautics Board.
CAB executive director Carmelo Arcilla could not say in an interview on Friday, June 23, how extensive the flight reductions would be.
Arcilla, in another interview, refuted allegations of overbooking against leading airlines, emphasizing that a shortage in aircraft equipment and parts is the root cause of the flight disruptions.
As airlines grapple with the scarcity in aircraft equipment and parts, larger commercial planes like the Airbus A321neos remain parked for necessary inspections and repairs.
CAB has looked into the spate of customer complaints, mostly on flight cancellations, filed against domestic carriers.
Based on its investigation, CAB found out that some passengers were offloaded from their flights as a result of downgrading, in which a smaller aircraft is used in place of the larger one originally assigned to the flight.
Those offloaded would later learn that their flight went on as scheduled, so they presume that they were victims of overbooking.
Since such is the case, Arcilla said the actual situation is far from overbooking or when airlines sell seat tickets more than the capacity of the aircraft.
Nevertheless, Arcilla vowed that CAB will tighten its oversight against overbooking in response to the mounting complaints on flight cancellations. CAB penalizes airlines guilty of such an offense by reducing their landing and takeoff slots similar to what it did to a carrier in January.
Meantime, CAB wants policymakers to return the limit on overbooking.
In a separate interview, Arcilla proposed that an overbooking cap of five to 10 percent be slapped to sanction carriers which tend to sell seats beyond the capacity of an aircraft.
Domestic operators Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific are experiencing delays in the repair of jet engines made by aviation supplier Pratt & Whitney, leaving them with no choice but to take some of their aircraft out of service.
With additional report: Elijah Felice Rosales – The Philippine Star
