Lufthansa Technik Philippines’ key customer Philippine Airlines maintains a highly impressive stature as it attains a 91.6 percent average on-time departure rate, which overtook the ratings of 12 major carriers from the Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines (AAPA). The percentage figure of the country’s flag carrier was an evaluated performance for months of January to February 2010.

 
Both on-time ratings of PAL which closed in at 90.9 in January and 92.4 in February had exceeded high industry standards. The airline, being the only carrier surveyed to reach the 90-percent level, easily surpassed the AAPA average of 85.8 and 86 percent respectively for the first two months. PAL heightens its status as it also goes beyond a worldwide industry ontime rating of 85 percent set by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

 
PAL’s remarkable performance can be partially attributed to minimized defects resulting from a consistently high level of maintenance service being carried out by LTP for the carrier’s fleet. “We have learned to look more intensively into the delays and the probable reasons causing them. After every layover, we draw out an analysis if delays have occurred then corrective measures are applied to prevent similar occurrences. By this we try to establish so-called best practices of the company to learn for the next event. All the dedication paid off with PAL now on top at a 91.6 percent departure rating,” says LTP Vice President for Aircraft Maintenance Dirk Heil. He adds that apart from PAL’s high on-time departure percentage, the carrier had attained a worldclass rating of 99.36 percent for technical performance achieved for the month of February 2010.

“The contribution of LTP to this achievement is a company-wide effort here in LTP. The support coming from different departments had all been significantly relevant to meeting and exceeding our goals,” shares Heil.

The achieved ontime performance of the carrier also proves PAL’s high operational efficiency. Another major factor to this proficiency is the airline’s deployment of a young and modern fleet, most especially with the new Boeing 777  300ERs now serving intercontinental routes. Also making up the fleet are PAL’s single-aisle aircraft consisting of 22 A320s and A319s that fly short-haul routes. These jets have an average of only four years, making it one of the youngest in the world. The airline’s long-range fleet comprises four A340- 300s and eight A330- 300s, including newly refurbished B747-400s.