Addressing passenger woes

Those of us who have had the pleasure – or pain – of flying out of Metro Manila surely experienced a flight delay or cancellation, not to mention the occasional chaos in our airports.

One would actually be very surprised not to experience any delays at all, whichever airline it may be.

In the hot seat now is Gokongwei-led budget carrier Cebu Pacific, which has been the subject of complaints due to its numerous flight cancellations.

It’s been a challenging time for passengers and it’s easy to forget that decades ago, the entry of CEB has made it possible for more people to travel.

Even today, the alternative for those who cannot afford to fly on non-budget carriers is to travel for a longer time by land or by sea. And believe it or not, it’s not the most pleasant way to travel. I know because I’ve tried it many times.

Traveling by boat can be as third world as it can be – crowded beyond capacity, no seats, dirty and stinking restrooms, not enough life vests. I can go on and on.

It’s good that our lawmakers are looking into what’s happening so that airline passengers would understand what’s happening.

New aircraft

CEB, in response, has taken serious note of all the issues raised regarding its operations and customer handling.

It has committed to immediately address all the concerns even as it manages the operational challenges it faces borne out of global aircraft and supply chain issues.

It has taken delivery of an Airbus A320 aircraft last June 23 and another one on Friday to reinforce network stability.

Overbooking

On the issue of overbooking, CEB clarified that it is not doing overbooking at all during peak travel periods.

While overbooking is an accepted global industry practice, taking into account possible no-shows, CEB said its policy is to overbook only up to an average of four percent and does not allow overbooking at all during peak travel periods.

From 2020 to May 2023, CEB carried close to 30 million passengers. It denied boarding due to overbooking to only 10 passengers or a ratio of 0.03 per 100,000 passengers carried.

“This year, we have had no denied boarding due to overbooking,” CEB said in its response to the Senate inquiry.

I personally hope overbooking won’t be allowed anymore.

The reason why passengers weren’t able to board their flights is aircraft downgrades. Some aircraft weren’t available because of maintenance issues caused by supply chain problems involving aircraft parts.

Thus, when passengers booked a flight months before their trip, the aircraft that was previously scheduled to service that flight was no longer available by the time of the actual trip due to maintenance issues.

Instead of cancelling the flight – which would mean more passengers won’t be able to travel – CEB opted to use an available standby smaller aircraft.

The displaced passengers are re-accommodated to the next available flight and are given the options to rebook or refund without charges.

A Manila to Cebu flight, for example, was originally assigned an A321NEO with 236 seats but because of technical issues, the aircraft could not be used. Rather than cancelling it outright, if there was an A320 available with 180 seats, the flight would push through, which would inevitably displace passengers.

CEB’s mistake was not explaining this well to confused passengers until the whole thing got so messed up, plus the fact that it didn’t reduce its number of flights early on.
The way I see it, it’s an unfortunate situation that is plaguing other carriers too. The pandemic affected the global supply chain – from potatoes to wheat to cheese and now, airplane parts.

It’s hard for any passenger suddenly unable to board a flight to understand this but it is what it is.

Moving forward, CEB has committed to reduce its flights, given the unprecedented number of grounded aircraft, some of which may be out of service for a considerable amount of time. It will also increase standby aircraft.

I heard CEB is already doing these measures with moves to increase the number of standby aircraft to six from just three to four last June.

It is also leasing additional aircraft to further enhance our operational resilience, CEB said.

As I said, our lawmakers are right in calling for an inquiry into all these flight disruptions.

However, I disagree with Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez’s call to suspend the franchise of the low-cost carrier.

As it is now, with some of the aircraft grounded, passengers are already experiencing cancellations and delays.

Imagine what would happen if we’re one airline less?

It’s easy to make such calls and easier to echo such calls but make no mistake, this would create a bigger problem and would make it difficult for those passengers – including Cong. Rufus’ constituents – who cannot afford to fly via the more expensive carriers.

What’s the alternative if this happens? Of course, one can travel by boat and brave the seemingly endless journey in the middle of the deep blue sea to reach the different provinces.

But more often than not, this can be more grueling than a delayed or even a cancelled flight.

Perhaps, Cong. Rufus should try it.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.