Hmm, was your eye drawn to the image? thought it might be, we all love a bargain. Look a little closer. That price is in Singapore Dollars … about $36 USD at today’s rate. From where you ask? From Singapore.
So why did I feature this on my blog about traveling to, living in and working in the Philippines? Not b
ecause of the location, but the air line doing the advertising … Jetstar is a discount airline operating out of Manila’s "second" airport, DMIA, the former Clark AB in Pampanga, Luzon. Part of the Qantas family of airlines, JetStar serves Singapore directly from DMIA and onward from Singapore Macau (Hong Kong’s "second" airport … 30 minutes by hydrofoil from Central, Hong Kong) as well as dozens of cities in Australia, Thailand, New Zealand, Japan and others.
Most fares aren’t quite as cheap as $36 USD but they are very economical indeed … typical round-trip from Manila-Singapore-Manila is about $168 USD, all in.
The aircraft are new, the crews are well-trained, the company is backed by one of the oldest and safest in the business, Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service (we know them today as QANTAS).
Many people reading this are those who have to leave the Philippines every year to renew tourist visas, this is certainly a great choice … hotels and entertainment in Singapore are many and varied … and for my Australian and New Zealand readers, another route to the Philippines.
Hi Philly – Singapore is indeed a good back-door way to enter the Philippines. In the past 6 months I have had two friends from Australia come to visit me here in Davao. They each flew in on Singapore Airlines, through Singapore and directly into Davao City. Cheap and convenient too!
Philly,
I’m from Australia and I wouldn’t fly Qantas (or Jetstar) if you paid me. Their service is lousy. As for safety…well just this week we learned that Qantas engineers had mistakenly pumped nitrogen into the back-up oxygen tanks.
My choice is Tiger.
Hi Laurence … thanks for your point of view. Must say you are the first airline customer I’ve heard in my recollection with customer service complaints on QANTAS .. as with every airline, the old internet disclaimer applies, YMMV. QANTAS does have just about the best safety record in the entire world though … I’d be interested in a reference to that incident about the Nitrogen vs Oxygen screw-up. The piping systems in aircraft have been designed for years to make it physically impossible to connect an N2 service cart to an O2 inlet … you couldn;t even by the pipe fittings to do this at a plumbing store … so the guys in question must have been way more clever than the average fool.
Thanks for te mention on Tiger, indeed they fly cheap flights from Clark also … they are the dicount arm of Singapore Airliens … Singapore Air had a record similar to QANTAS for many yers as well … until they attempted takeoff on a closed runway at TPE a couple years ago … now they fit in the same category as Northwest, Japan Air and the other name brand ones … but I’ll post some info on Tiger soon … they are certainly a good choice as well.
Philly,
Here’s the nitrogen story…I liked the headline…also explains your point about the different carts:
http://defendingscoundrels.com/2007/12/-in-the-event-that-oxygen-is-r.html
I guess we’re always highly critical of our own national carriers because we want to have some pride in them…it’s just that I’ve had some veeery ordinary flights with Qantas & Jetstar and if it wasn’t for the monopoly that Qantas has on certain routes then I doubt whether they would stay in business. However, service may improve because in an effort to cut costs they will be making more use of overseas based crews. Maybe we might get some great Filipino service on Jetstar and Qantas in the future!
Just on Tiger….I can fly from Melbourne to Clark (via Darwin & Singapore) for about $200 one way.
A lot of these SE Asia carriers are now making Darwin their entry point to Australia (which makes sense because, geographically, it’s in SE Asia). So from Darwin we can fly cheaply to anywhere
Laurence, thanks for that link … I shall delve into it … aviation accidents/incidents are a passion of mine … I’ve been a pilot more than 40 years now … and I also, over the years have come to learn to hate the term “fool proof” … because it fails to account for the fact that fools are so damn ingenious LoL.
That is indeed a good price, and a route from Melbourne via Darwin and Singapore is a lot closer to a straight line that many routings airlines come up with these days.
Philly,
I’ve just read the President’s announcement that Clark will be the new International gateway to the Philippines. Good news for those of us travelling to La Union!
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/jan/31/yehey/top_stories/20080131top5.html
Interesting, Laurence, thanks for passing that on … I even rad the paper today (a different ne), which I seldom do. I’m glad that President Arroyo is still pushing Clark as an International Airport. A couple projects in that direction seemed stalled .. like a new light rail line to Clark along the old Philippine National railroad right of way, etc. Clark certainly is an excellent choice … at least for a releiver airport … and while some projects take longer and some less time, there’s no doubt that Clark’s air traffic is growing. For anyone bound for the north sid eof Manila northward Calrk is a great choice … especially since the new tollway from Angeles to Subic is almost open … it will be a beautiful road and will make Subic and nice destinations like la Union and houir closer … can’t wait, myself.
Philly,
Read today that Air Asia will be expanding into Australia domestic. They fly into Clark from Kuala Lumpur (and Kota Kinabalu) and currently fly Brisbane to Kuala Lumpur.
Also, I was planning to go to Clark via Macau at Xmas but have now worked out that it’s a lot cheaper to go via Singapore.
Cool, that’s some good news Laurence, keep us posted. Thanks for the update.
Philly,
I was checking out the Clark Airport website and noticed in the Flight Schedules that there are flights from Hong Kong to Clark with HongKong Express airline. Checked their website and though Manila (I assume they mean Clark) is listed in the drop-down, there doesn’t seem to be any scheduled flights as yet. Still, if this is up and running soon then it will be the first direct flight from HK to Clark.
Wow, thanks. i will certainly take alook. Yes indeed a direct to Hong Kong flight is a good idea. Currently one can fly Clark to Macau and actually the Macau airport is nearly as close to downtown Hong Kong as is the Hong Kong airport … hydrofoil ferry to Central, a neat experience in itself … but many folks don’t or won’t consider Macau, so direct to Hong Kong is a great idea.
As a side note I recently watched a special on the new Venetian hotel/casino in Macau … wow. Mita and I are going there someday soon, much, much nicer than anything Hong Kong has to offer. Neither of us are gamblers, but the Venetian is well worth a visit even if you never risk a chip.
Philly,
Looks like there’ll be more options to fly into Clark in the near future.
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/may/23/yehey/opinion/20080523opi1.html
Hi Laurence, as always, thanks for keeping your finger on the pulse of airline flying. I wrote this one up, as I am sure you have already seen.