Two airlines expect travel bookings to pick up in the coming months as fuel surcharges for domestic and international flights continued to drop.
“Any form of reduction in air travel costs is a big help for all our guests as they can allot this to additional baggage allowance or pasalubongs—which can be particularly helpful for people traveling on a budget or for families traveling together,” said AirAsia Philippines communications and public affairs country head Steve Dailisan.
“We are also expecting the travel booking trend to continuously intensify as most Filipinos are still eyeing last-minute summer plans extending to June, thus this fuel surcharge development would benefit travelers,” he said.
The Civil Aeronautics Board reduced the applicable fuel surcharge rates for domestic and international flights to Level 5 in May from this month’s Level 6.
Passengers who will be purchasing their tickets next month will only incur an additional surcharge of P151 to P542 for domestic flights and from P498.03 to P774.75 for international flights, depending on the distance.
Philippine Airlines spokesperson Cielo Villaluna also said the reduction in fuel surcharge next month is a welcome development.
“Philippine Airlines will faithfully comply with this latest fuel surcharge level that applies to tickets to be purchased in the month of May,” Villaluna said.
“PAL remains focused on further regaining strength as we target to end this year with more operational aircraft in our fleet,” she said.
Villaluna said PAL registered an average passenger load factor of around 80 percent in the first quarter, signaling optimism for the company’s financial performance for the year.
“We have increases flight capacity to several destinations including routes to China. Flights to Asian destination were restarted in January following the easing of border restrictions,” she said.
“We are set to offer last-mile cargo service delivery. This service could support the operations of small and medium enterprises in the advent of e-commerce. We are working on the digitalization of our processes and procedures to enhance the overall customer experience,” Villaluna said. With Joel E. Zurbano