COMPANIES
Sky’s the limit
By Michelle Baltazar
Jaime Bautista, the president of Philippine Airlines, greets me with a firm handshake and a smile. It’s late in the afternoon and most of his co-workers have already left. He leads me to his office, a modest size room with a desk on one side and a meeting table on another.
Jaime Bautista, PAL chief executive and president
In the corner of my eye, I notice two things: an oil painting showing four young boys playing with paper planes. In the sky behind them is a PAL airplane zooming past.
Below this painting is a table full of trophies: awards that PAL won through the years.
Bautista singles out the “CAPA Airline Turnaround of the Year 2007” award, a prestigious award from the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) given to the most improved airline in the region.
He personally had a hand in steering the airline on course after it filed for receivership back in 1998. At the time, it struggled because of the Asian Financial Crisis and union strikes.
But the recovery strategy and reforms that the management executed in the years following worked. Things were looking up.
But then the global financial crisis (GFC) happened, threatening the travel industry and all carriers, including PAL.
Bautista says there is no doubt the crisis is a problem but unlike other airlines, PAL has been through it before.
“One advantage that we have is that we’ve filed for a bankruptcy arrangement,” he explains, “so in terms of experience, we’ve experienced this and implemented measures to combat the problems we encountered.”
The airline has come a long way in the punctuality stakes, too.
My flights to and from the Philippines were on time and hassle-free. Compared to other airlines, Bautista said that over 90 per cent of the “on time performance” of PAL is better than the international average.
“That is one thing that I personally look into. My computer [he points at his desk] allows me to monitor the movement of our fleet,” he says, adding that the first thing he checks when he comes to the office in the morning is the status of PAL’s entire fleet of more than 45 planes.
Besides, PAL is benefiting from its maintenance deal with the same company that services German airline Lufthansa.
“That’s one of the reason for the good performance of the airline. Ten years ago, the number one reason for the delays we had was maintenance. But now with Lufthansa, we have that service level agreement with them where they are penalised if they don’t meet those service levels,” says Bautista.
Last year, PAL increased its flights from Australia to the Philippines. Whether or not it plans to scale back because of the global economic slowdown, only time will tell. Either way, Bautista said that they will continue to offer topline services as the country’s national carrier.
And like the country’s national bird, the Philippine eagle, Bautista hopes that PAL soars through this crisis – thanks to the continuing support of Filipinos around the world.
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