This year up to October, I flew 35 domestic flights in PAL (hence, my membership level was upgraded to ELITE - thus, my avatar), 4 in Cebu Pacific, and 2 in Air Philippines.

COCKTALES
Lies, damned lies, and PAL-CebuPac statistics

By Victor Agustin
Inquirer
Last updated 00:07am (Mla time) 10/30/2006

Published on page B4 of the October 30, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE GLOVES ARE OFF BETWEEN Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific.

PAL, which long suffered in silence against the Gokongwei airline’s pointed TV ads about its “late” image, last week came blazing out with print ads to dispute CebuPac’s latest claim that it has finally dethroned the Lucio Tan airline in the domestic passenger market.

“Let’s get real,” PAL harrumphed in a series of full-page ads in key newspapers, as it cited full-year domestic passenger figures until August 2006.

Based on Civil Aeronautics Board records, PAL still had a commanding lead of 48.8 percent over the 30.8-percent market share of “Airline No. 2” within the same period.

“Who is the Real No. 1 Domestic Airline?” PAL asked, even emblazoning the phrase “Real No. 1” in fiery red color amid a sea of black letters.

(The ad agency behind the series is the little-known K Ad.)

So, who is telling the truth? Well, ironically, both.

Whereas PAL chose to look at a one-year historical snapshot, Cebu Pacific CEO Lance Gokongwei focused on the latest, in-house figures from Oct. 1-15 to claim that the JG Summit subsidiary has finally reached pole position, a good 10 years after its founding.

According to Cebu Pacific, the airline flew a total of 148,578 passengers in the first 15 days of this month as against PAL’s 144,167, or the equivalent of 45.337-percent market share as against PAL’s 44.02 percent.

Whether this trend would hold the industry would know after tomorrow, when October shall be over.

Still, judging from the Gokongwei confidence in both ads and press statements, final passenger statistics will validate youthful exuberance.

But, then again, PAL’s Kapitan has an ace up his sleeve, and it is called Air Philippines.