PAL holiday bookings up, PALEA members vote in favour of strike

Philippine Airlines announced (08-Dec-2010) flight bookings for the forthcoming holidays registered a significant increase despite the carrier's labour woes. PAL said it recorded a 10% year-on-year increase in confirmed bookings for Dec-2010, which it states indicates strong passenger confidence in PAL's continued operations. Spokesperson Cielo Villaluna stated PAL's sales department noted a significant uptick in confirmed bookings, especially after the Malacanang Presidential Office made a public appeal to the PAL Employees Association (PALEA) to defer any work stoppage while the Palace moves to resolve the PAL-PALEA labour issue. Malacanang also warned PALEA against holding the strike action, as it could further complicate the dispute. Based on sales data, almost all flights coming from the US are full, registering the highest number of forward bookings, followed by those coming from Australia. [more]

PALEA stated 86% of members voted in favor of the proposed strike action (abs-cbnNEWS.com, 09-Dec-2010). President Gerry Rivera stated that although the majority of members voted for the action, the union is "still open to discussions" with PAL. PAL called on PALEA to "exercise restraint" in issuing statements and listen to Malacanang's calls to return to negotiations with the carrier (GMANews.TV, 09-Dec-2010).