PAL: 3-4 days needed to normalize flight schedules

At least three to four days may be needed before flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) gets its flight schedules back on track, an airline official admitted Monday. PAL president Jaime Bautista gave the estimate in a radio interview as he apologized to the riding public for the inconvenience caused by the sudden departure of PAL’s pilots. “Kami ay humihingi ng paumanhin at siguro tatlo hanggang apat na araw mag-normalize siguro ang scheduled flights ng PAL (We are asking for forgiveness and we may need three to four days before our flight schedules can get back to normal)," Bautista said in an interview on dzRH radio. Two flights — PR 147 (Manila to Iloilo) and PR 135 (Manila to Bacolod) — were canceled Monday as PAL rushes to train new pilots that will replace those who resigned reportedly to seek better opportunities abroad. PAL had given the concerned pilots seven days to return to work or face sanctions. President Benigno Aquino III has already ordered officials of the concerned government agencies to help resolve the problem, which he said is detrimental to the country’s tourism industry. For now, Bautista said they are trying to accommodate passengers into other flights. “Ayaw naming mangyari yan, subali’t nagkaroon ng ganyang problema. Pangako namin pilitin namin malipat sila at nilipat namin sila sa ibang flights (We don’t want this problem, but it’s here. All we can do is to accommodate passengers on other flights)," he said. – KBK, GMANews.TV