PAL spending $90 M to replace video-less, sardine seats in A330s
Philippine Airlines (PAL) is spending $6 million per aircraft to rip out and upgrade the sardine-seating configuration in the economy section of all its 15 almost new Airbus A330-300 planes.
That works out to $90 million in all, or almost P4.5 billion drag on the flag carrier’s thankfully recovering finances, according to PAL officials who asked not to be identified by name.
Delivered starting only in the third quarter of 2013, seven of the A330s have an all-economy, 414-seat configuration ordered by then PAL president Ramon Ang to battle budget carrier Cebu Pacific for the Middle East routes.
The remaining eight planes are configured with 368 seats in three classes, with the business seats ironically having no individual luggage stowage and no in-seat video screens like those in the economy section.
PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said the airline would remove 105 seats from each mono- class plane to make room for 18 full- flat business, 24 premium economy and 267 economy seats with improved width and legroom.
The new seats in all classes will have their individual audio-video monitors, USB ports and power chargers.
The same seat upgrades will also be undertaken in the eight remaining A330s, despite their current three-class configuration.
Each new seat in the business and premium economy section will have a legrest, calfrest, footrest and coat hook.
Moreover, the business class seats will have massage and softness/firmness functions, a first among the Asian carriers, Villaluna said.
As well, all business class seats will have aisle access, removing the so-called “excuse-me” seats where a passengers hops over another to get to the aisle.
In addition to the individual monitors, there will be internet service for those who wish to use their computers and smartphones on board as well as to connect to PAL’s inflight entertainment system.
PAL president Jaime Bautista has said the incremental improvements, though costly, are necessary toward transforming the flag carrier into a five-star, full-service airline by the year 2020.
The new seats have all been ordered from suppliers abroad, but their installation will be done locally by Lufthansa Technik Philippines, a joint venture of the German aircraft maintenance conglomerate and the locally listed MacroAsia Corp.
The first A330 with the new seat configuration will roll out in June for the Manila-Honolulu service, followed in July for Melbourne, August for Sydney, September for Singapore, October for Haneda, November for Narita and December for Osaka.
Here is how the new economy seats of PAL will stack up with those of other airlines, with A330 seat statistics courtesy of seatguru.com:
As to the premium economy class, PAL’s new recliner seats will be comparable to Cathay Pacific’s, with a 19-inch width and a 38-inch pitch for the flag carrier as opposed to the 19.3-inch width and 38-inch pitch for the industry-setting Chinese carrier.
Heard through the grapevine
Malaysian billionaire Vincent Tan has become one of the biggest, consistent donor of Gawad Kalinga, with Tan funding the just-launched restaurant and culinary center of the GK farm in Bulacan.
Better known as the founder of the Berjaya Group, Tan also increased his contribution to build 5,000 GK homes from his original pledge of 3,000. E-mail: cocktales_tv5@yahoo.com