# Best airlines for domestic flights in Philippines?



## kaitlin12210 (Jul 11, 2018)

Hello, I am wondering if anyone has any advice on the best airlines for domestic flights in the Philippines? Based on how cheap, and how many islands/cities they fly to. Thanks for any info!


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## fmartin_gila (May 15, 2011)

Stay away from Cebu Air for later in the day flights. They start out in the morning departing & arriving on time but as the day goes on they gradually get further & further behind schedule and by the time the late afternoon & evening flights come around, they are 2 to 3 hours behind their schedule. PAL seems to do much better. This is just my personal observation and they may have improved by now as I am referencing a few years ago.

Fred


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## kaitlin12210 (Jul 11, 2018)

Thanks very much


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

Not all airlines go to all of the islands so you will need to pick and choose. Travel in the Philippines tend to be slow so don't try and cram too much in.


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## kaitlin12210 (Jul 11, 2018)

Good to know, thank you!


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

And traveling from island to island will often involve flying to and from Manila/Cebu often with an overnight stay in between.


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## Tukaram (Dec 18, 2014)

The main choices are Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines. Both have issues... Cebu Pac is usually cheaper, but have less routes, and more delays. And yes, be prepared for round about routes. Even here in Iloilo (supposedly an international airport) we still have very few direct flights, international or domestic. We have to go through Cebu or Manila for a lot. 

So we end up taking ferries/buses more than flying.


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## kaitlin12210 (Jul 11, 2018)

Oh ok thank you for this info!


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## Manitoba (Jun 25, 2014)

Tukaram said:


> The main choices are Cebu Pacific and Philippines Air. Both have issues... Cebu Pac is usually cheaper, but have less routes, and more delays. And yes, be prepared for round about routes.....


AirAsia is the third option that goes to many places. Like Cebu but more delays, cheaper.

Then there are several small local airlines only with a few routes. 

I have used all three main ones and have no preference, whatever is cheaper and best time for me on any particular day is what I book.


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## Tim_L (Jul 14, 2018)

fmartin_gila said:


> Stay away from Cebu Air for later in the day flights. They start out in the morning departing & arriving on time but as the day goes on they gradually get further & further behind schedule and by the time the late afternoon & evening flights come around, they are 2 to 3 hours behind their schedule. PAL seems to do much better. This is just my personal observation and they may have improved by now as I am referencing a few years ago.
> 
> Fred


That has been my experience also. I prefer PAL even though they are a bit more expensive.


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## SimonAngeles (May 10, 2016)

Surely it depends where you're travelling from and where you want to get to?


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## Tim_L (Jul 14, 2018)

SimonAngeles said:


> Surely it depends where you're travelling from and where you want to get to?


I don’t know. Manila to Cebu, Cebu to Manila, Cebu to Surigao, Surigao to Cebu, Cebu to Boracay, Boracay to Cebu. All delayed for varying times and twice the flight was cancelled entirely and I had to get the next one @ Cebu Pacific.

Every PAL flight I’ve taken. Manila to Cebu and Cebu to Manila was always on time.


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## SimonAngeles (May 10, 2016)

Try flying from Clark, it's much less hassle than Manila.


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## Tim_L (Jul 14, 2018)

SimonAngeles said:


> Try flying from Clark, it's much less hassle than Manila.


Didn’t see any flights from JFK to Clark.  I will scout out using Clark for domestic flights in the future though.


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## Tim_L (Jul 14, 2018)

Honestly though, he more I think about it, the more I think Cebu Pacific might be the way to go. 
It’s good experience for what life is like on the daily there. Slow, delayed, cancelled. 😂😂😂😂

I took a flight from Cebu to Surigao, was delayed from boarding for by about 45 minutes due to storms in Surigao. My weather radar didn’t look to too bad but, okay smaller plane, prop jet, it’s cool, what 45 minutes. 

So, we finally board the plane, get taxl’ing out to the runway, waiting in line for our turn to take off.
It’s our turn to take off and “ladies and Gentlemen, we apologize but the weather in Surigao is such that we cannot take off and safely land in Surigao. We will be returning back to the terminal to await further instructions.”

So I turn my phone back on since it obviously isn’t going to effect the aircraft at this point. I again checked the radar in Surigao, looks like light rain to me, storms on the horizon maybe but we’re talking green on the radar, not red. 

Anyway, sat on the tarmac for almost and hour, finally got,clearance to roll and when we landed in Surigao, it didn’t look very wet at all. The runway was mostly dry. 🤷*♂ 

Just thought I’d share that experience.

All in all though, Cebu Pacific seems to have more flights with Ph then any other carrier and their prices are better then others. They sure love to nickel and dime you to death trying to wring every last peso they can get out of you. Get used to that also, it happens everywhere to foreigners there.
Other then being time issues, I’ve never had a bad flight with them.


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## SimonAngeles (May 10, 2016)

Tim_L said:


> Didn’t see any flights from JFK to Clark.  I will scout out using Clark for domestic flights in the future though.


Asiana?

https://www.google.com/flights?lite=0#flt=JFK.CRK.2018-08-27*CRK.JFK.2018-09-11;c:GBP;e:1;sd:1;t:f


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

Flights in and out of Clark have been quite limited but is starting to improve. We have flow internationally into Clark to save travelling across Manila but sometimes it's a lot cheaper to go to Manila.


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## Tim_L (Jul 14, 2018)

SimonAngeles said:


> Asiana?
> 
> https://www.google.com/flights?lite=0#flt=JFK.CRK.2018-08-27*CRK.JFK.2018-09-11;c:GBP;e:1;sd:1;t:f


Thank you for that Simon. I appreciate it. I am heading to Angeles some time in August to look around and see how things look for a move to that city.

It’s nice to know that I can fly into and out of Clark, internationally.


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## JRB__NW (Apr 8, 2015)

Tim_L said:


> Every PAL flight I’ve taken. Manila to Cebu and Cebu to Manila was always on time.


Haha, my experience is certainly different than yours. I prefer PAL but in the 4 years I've been in the Philippines I would say at least 75% of my (domestic) flights have been delayed by half an hour or more. But they usually do go eventually. And I don't question their competence so they are still my first choice.

However my nickname for them is PAL = Plane Always Late

On the other hand Cebu Pacific does seem to fly to more of the islands, as they use a lot of smaller turboprop planes in their fleet. A lot of fun to fly inter-island. One thing you will notice is some only have one flight per day to an island which can ruin the last day of a vacation if it is at 6am, lol.

We use Air Asia mostly between countries such as Cebu to Kuala Lumpur or KL to Indonesia, Thailand, etc as the fares can't be beat. But yeah, you will pay for everything, even a soda, lol. My preference to other countries is Silk Air but they are more expensive. Really nice service.

From Cebu we do take a lot of ferries to other islands. We like fastcrafts like Supercat and Oceanjet , for example to go to Bohol, but you can't take the car. For that you have to take the slower ferries such as Cokaliong Shipping lines. Definitely do not take a ferry in bad weather.


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## fmartin_gila (May 15, 2011)

JRB__NW said:


> From Cebu we do take a lot of ferries to other islands. We like fastcrafts like Supercat and Oceanjet , for example to go to Bohol, but you can't take the car. For that you have to take the slower ferries such as Cokaliong Shipping lines. Definitely do not take a ferry in bad weather.


I was also thinking of suggesting using the ferry's. Cokaliong and 2GO cover quite a bit and there are numerous smaller outfits to get inter-island. I have gotten to the point that I prefer to go by ferry rather than air and I am an old Pilot.

Fred


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## Asian Spirit (Mar 1, 2010)

fmartin_gila said:


> I was also thinking of suggesting using the ferry's. Cokaliong and 2GO cover quite a bit and there are numerous smaller outfits to get inter-island. I have gotten to the point that I prefer to go by ferry rather than air and I am an old Pilot.
> 
> Fred


Understand and agree with your thinking Fred. I worked for the airlines for many years and have a feeling your reasoning is the same as mine..


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