flight delays on Philippines Airlines

[Katrien Vandevelde]

Hi there,
I've heard that the flights between Cebu and Puerto Princessa are often notoriously late. Is that the case with both Air Asia and Philippine Airlines or not so much for the latter?
We're wondering if we should travel a day ahead to not miss our flight? There is a Philippines Airlines flight that arrives at Cebu at noon 12;00. Our international flight leaves the same day in Cebu at 17:30. That should allow for a sea of time to catch our flight. Or not?

 

[Russjstewart]

For what is worth I was in Peurto Princessa in Feb 2017. Four flights. Melbourne - Manilla, Manilla -PP, and the reverse coming home. Every flight was late. One flight involved a trip to the workshop in a fully loaded plane. One flight had us on descent into Manilla when the pilot aborted and went around in a holding pattern. All flights were with Phillipine Airlines. The flight out of P.P was an easy couple of hours late, but P.A did rush us through to get the connecting flight in Manilla. If I was doing the trip again , I would make sure that I was with the same airline all the way.

 

[Centrals]

Make sure it is a THROUGH ticket.

 

[outofofficebrb]

There is also not taking off at all because of weather.....I have a pilot friend and some of the smaller airports in the Philippines do not have automatic landing equipment on their runways for lack of better terms. It does not take much for weather to cause delays or to have a flight cancelled which is what happened to us. It was a little rainy but mostly overcast with low clouds and that was what did it. We left almost 24 hours later out of Palawan.

Outside of that, 3 airports, and we did not have a delayed flight....getting from one place to the next, especially terminals - leave yourself a lot of time. Is your ticket from PP to Cebu on the same airline or is it an online connection or are they offline? Are they separate tickets?

 

[flyboy08]

"Automatic landing systems" hehe......it's an ILS (instrument landing system) where the pilot flies the aircraft equipped ILS which keeps the aircraft at a certain point in space....usually flying a 3 degree decent to the runway threshold markings....hopefully a few airports are equipped to allow the aircraft to land with no visual clues outside the aircraft....Heathrow, JFK and even your San Fran to name a few....

This is in layman terms.....

 

[outofofficebrb]

"Automatic landing systems" hehe......it's an ILS (instrument landing system) where the pilot flies the aircraft equipped ILS which keeps the aircraft at a certain point in space....usually flying a 3 degree decent to the runway threshold markings....hopefully a few airports are equipped to allow the aircraft to land with no visual clues outside the aircraft....Heathrow, JFK and even your San Fran to name a few....

This is in layman terms.....

I am glad you followed up my post with this information LOL. Thank you! I can tell you Coron definitely doesn’t have what is needed because we got screwed there. Not sure about Puerto Princesa.

 

[bshort4]

I've flown about 15 or 16 domestic flights in the Philippines over the last four years or so evenly divided between Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines---I avoid Air Asia at all costs. About 25% of my flights have been delayed--mostly less than one hour--longest delay was 8 hours from Kilibo to Manila (Cebu Pacific) but I wasn't catching another flight so it wasn't a big deal just annoying. I actually try to fly Phil Air as much as possible if the prices are about the same between them and Cebu Pacific---you need to pay extra for checked luggage on Cebu Pacific and I get 20 kilos free checked on Phil Air even for domestic flights. Never had a Phil Air flight delayed very long and just prefer them over the other two if the prices are comparable. What's nice about Cebu airport is that it's smaller and faster to get around---not like Manila where you may need to change terminals and your four or five hour layover may not be enough. I've done it both ways--flown in a day early--spent the night and caught my flight the next day and flown in the same day with a three or four hour layover for another flight and didn't have a problem. It's a crap shoot as far as delays go--you just never know but I personally would go with Phil Air as my first choice and cut down the house's odds.

 

[Centrals]

1. Why would anyone want to fly Air Asia within Philippines?
2. Cebu Pacific is getting too big for its own good. Delay or reschedule is quite common.
3. There are "internal" transfer shuttle between the 4 terminals so getting around does not take that long. In the old days when they still used the public road I had managed to miss the international flight because of traffic jam!!!

 

[moorish8idol]

If I were to go back to the Philippines I would definitely fly through Cebu instead of Manila. As mentioned above, Cebu is a much smaller airport with two interconnected terminals - Manila has 4 which are not connected, has constant delays for many reasons (including air traffic control congestion) and even without delays you can expect it to take you several hours to get from one flight to the other when switching terminals. So you are already doing better flying through Cebu.
I also heard Air Asia was a nightmare but when they took off on time to go to Manila while I was delayed for hours upon hours with PAL, also going to Manila, (the reason given was air traffic control congestion which made no sense when Air Asia took off on time and we couldn't get a landing time even though we should have had priority), I was wishing I had flown with them. It's a toss-up either way - flights in the Philippines are frequently delayed, regardless of the company - and delays tend to worsen as the day progresses so the earlier your flight in the morning, it seems the less likely you will encounter (severe) delays.

I had 4 flights with PAL, 3 of which arrived EARLY. My flights in and out of Cebu were on-time, easy, great (just note that many flights in and out of Cebu airport may require a bus to get you between terminal and airplane) and for my fourth flight I had a terrible delay out of PP which led to a very stressful experience in NAIA which I will now avoid like the plague. I'd say you should be fine with your current situation and if on the same ticket with Cebu, they will be on the hook for booking you another flight if delays cause you to miss a connection. Maybe make sure you have an extra day to get back to work/start activities at your next destination though.

One thing to note about Cebu Pacific is they appear to be very cavalier about canceling and rescheduling flights. Ultimately that is why I didn't fly with them. I had initially booked a flight out of PP via Cebu which several weeks later they cancelled - they offered a different flight (which would get me into Singapore a day later) or a full refund so I took the refund and paid more money to go with PAL. A few weeks after that they wrote me advising that they had re-instated the original flight that they had cancelled... what a gong show!

 

[npole]

I am glad you followed up my post with this information LOL. Thank you! I can tell you Coron definitely doesn’t have what is needed because we got screwed there. Not sure about Puerto Princesa.

Both airports doesn't have the ILS, however while Puerto Princesa does have navigation aids (beacons), Coron does not have anything and the approach is performed all visual, you won't land there with bad weather or low visibility, so the flights going there won't even depart if the airport is closed for landing.