Philippine Airlines’ coming-out party

The voice at the other end of the line sounded thrilled and jubilant. The excitement in the air was almost tangible. It was the biggest news of the day as far as he was concerned. I had to stop the car (I was driving when my phone rang) and park by the curb to take down notes. 

It was Tuesday night in Manila, but still around noon halfway around the world in a place they call La Ville-Lumière or the City of Lights. 

Philippine Airlines (PAL) president and COO Jaime “JJB” Bautista had just shared with me the news of PAL’s big win. 

PAL, the Lucio Tan-owned airline and Asia’s first airline, had just bagged the “World’s Most Improved Airline” award for 2019, as the carrier that achieved the biggest leap in product and service quality among a survey of over 350 leading airlines worldwide.

The Oscars

The world-beating award was conferred by the global air transport rating organization Skytrax during the 2019 World Airline Awards held at the Paris Air Show on Tuesday in the Musée de l’Air et de l’ Espace, Paris Le Bourget Airport, France. 

Skytrax also revealed that PAL is now ranked as the Top 30 Airline in the world,impressively up by 19 spots from Top 49 in 2018 and a full 60 spots from Top 90 in 2013 — what a feat!

PAL also ranked high in other important categories. These are the Top 10 World’s Best Business Class Comfort Amenities, Top 10 Best Airline Staff in Asia, Top 11 World’s Best Cabin Crew, Top 11 World’s Best Airport Services, Top 11 World’s Best Premium Economy Class and Top 14 World’s Best Economy Class.

As if these weren’t enough, Skytrax also re-certified PAL as a four-star global airline based on comprehensive quality audits performed last December 2018 and January 2019.

The annual World Airline Awards, established by Skytrax in 1999, is internationally recognized as the “Oscars” of the aviation industry to recognize the best-performing airlines in the world.

And just like the Oscars, it’s not easy to bring home the award.

The winners are chosen through an extensive “World Airline Survey” of more than 20 million travellers, encompassing over 100 nationalities and 335 airlines to make up the largest passenger satisfaction survey in the world.  

In 2018, Philippine Airlines garnered the first-ever Four Star Global Airline” rating from Skytrax for a Philippine carrier along with the “Second Most Improved Airline” and “Top 30 cleanest cabin” awards from Skytrax. 

These accolades were the result of the flag carrier’s enhancements — from the cockpit all the way to the cabin so to speak, or a comprehensive top to bottom improvement in aircraft, product, and overall services across key performance areas. 

JJB, as sir Jimmy is known in the industry, was so proud and happy. It was a very brief conversation.  He had to put down the phone soon, but not before he told me that the award was his final act, his big finale before he retires and steps down as PAL president and COO.

What a grand achievement, I told him. 

“This is my grand finale,” he said, proudly.

Indeed, JJB leaves the flag carrier on a high note.

For PAL, this might well be its coming out party, a way to tell the whole world that the flag carrier is now in the league of the world’s best airlines, that its wings are now fully spread and that it is ready to soar even higher.

But more importantly, it is an honor not only for PAL, but also for the whole country and it is thanks to a man named Jimmy Bautista, its pilot for 13 years who will leave PAL stronger than ever. 

Now PAL is ready to soar even higher — up there toward orange crimson suns and pale blue skies. 

Go PAL! As fighter pilots like to say, “go kick the tires and light the fires.” 

Iris Gonzales’ email address is [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales.