Melo Villareal
In an era when Filipino professionals agree that time is the most vital resource, it is not surprising that the majority favors air travel, and with the nation’s flag carrier being included in the list of 22 most dependable airlines in the world, it is time to grab more flights.
Philippine Airlines Airbus A320 MRD-1 by M Radzi Desa Licensed under GFDL 1.2 via Wikimedia Commons
Philippine Airlines (PAL), the first and oldest commercial airline in Asia, ranked 21st out of 22 most reliable airlines in a recent assessment organized by a prominent travel site named WanderBat.
The study looked across the globe and considered three factors on determining the scores, WanderBat established the ratings based on on-time performance which means “how frequently flights are on time, delayed and cancelled”, checked baggage cost which tells “the number of bags you get to check for free, as well as the cost of checking additional bags after your free allotment”, and fleet which refers to “the average fleet age”.
Philippine Airlines Boeing 777-300ER RP-C7776 LHR 2014-03-29 by Konstantin von Wedelstaedt Licensed under GFDL 1.2 via Wikimedia Commons
With PAL having more than 40 international and domestic destinations, it got a smart rating of 53% on-time performance and the average age of the fleet of its 51 aircraft is 4.2 years.
Although PAL’s flights tend to be delayed 47% of the time, records show that this scenario is still 21.8% better than the average setback of other international airlines.
WanderBat held that “PAL has been reaping the benefits of a growing wave of tourism, both as more foreign visitors enter the country and as more Filipinos travel abroad.”
Philippine Airlines Business Class
The national carrier celebrated its 74th founding anniversary by returning the service between Manila and New York after an 18-year break last March 15.
In evenhandedness, the travel site came up with a pretty fascinating list. PAL shares the prestige with renowned airlines such as Dubai’s Emirates, USA’s Southwest Airlines, UAE’s Etihad Airways and emerging as the world’s most dependable airline is Qatar’s Qatar Airways.
Here is the complete airline list which rounded up the most dependable airlines:
1. Qatar Airways (Qatar)
2. Emirates (Dubai)
3. China Eastern (China)
4. Singapore Airlines (Singapore)
5. China Southern Airlines (China)
6. Ethiopian Airlines (Ethiopia)
7. Air China (China)
8. British Airways (UK)
9. Saudia (Saudi Arabia)
10. Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong)
11. Lan (Chile)
12. Tam Airlines (Brazil)
13. Japan Airlines (Japan)
14. EgyptAir (Egypt)
15. Etihad Airways (UAE)
16. Malaysia Airlines (Malaysia)
17. Southwest Airlines (USA)
18. Qantas (Australia)
19. Aeroflot (Russia)
20. China Airlines (China)
21. Philippine Airlines (Philippines)
22. Air Berlin (Germany)
