Philippine Airlines eyes prepandemic pax count
Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) is gearing up to achieve prepandemic passenger volume this year with the expansion of routes and aircraft fleet.
Stanley Ng, president and chief operating officer of PAL, told reporters they expect passenger volume to rise by 10 percent to 20 percent this year.
This will translate to a total passenger volume of 17.16 million to 18.72 million. Those numbers are more than the 16.76 million guests the airline flew in 2019 or before the pandemic.
Last year, the Lucio Tan-led airline served 15.6 million passengers, up 6 percent from 2023.
“We’ve recovered some of our grounded aircraft. That will really help grow [the passenger volume],” Ng said.
He said they have 79 aircraft in their fleet now. They plan to bring in two more this year.
After that, the airline is set to receive nine Airbus A350-1000 long-range aircraft and 13 A321neo regional aircraft.
Moving forward, Ng said they were eyeing to launch a direct flight to Sapporo amid the strong interest in Japan. PAL currently flies to Fukuoka, Nagoya, Osaka and Tokyo.
This week, PAL announced it was launching by July 1 a flight linking Manila to Da Nang. Flights to the main gateway to world heritage site Hoi An will be available thrice a week.
On May 2, PAL will also operate the inaugural flight that connects Cebu and Ho Chi Minh.
The airline has also been ramping up its local routes. It recently announced an increase in the frequency of flights from Cebu to Siargao, Caticlan, Puerto Princesa, Coron, Tacloban and Davao.
By May 1, the airline will also begin operating daily flights from Clark to Siargao and Basco.
This would be an increase from the current thrice weekly flights for Clark-Siargo and four times weekly for Clark-Basco.
PAL Holdings Inc., the operator of PAL, saw its net income drop by 58 percent to P7.02 billion last year from P16.81 billion in 2023 due to weaker revenues.
