|
AIR Philippines is acquiring new aircraft to serve its expanded
network, the president of Philippine Airline (PAL) said.
Jaime Bautista, PAL president, said its budget
unit will acquire six Bombardier Q400 aircrarft in the fourth
quarter of this year, with a lease price of $20 million each. The
budget carrier will use the additional aircrafts to serve domestic
destinations like Romblon, Catanduanes, Caticlan, among others.
Air Philippines earlier signed with
Toronto-based Bombardier Aerospace to order three of the 50-seat
aircraft, and taken options on three more units. The firm orders are
valued at about $56 million, based on list prices. The first Q300,
was delivered last year and started the Manila-Caticlan flights.
The second and third Bombardier Q300 turbo-prop
firm orders will be delivered by May, enabling the airline to ramp
up its service to Caticlan to 11 times daily from Manila and twice
daily from Cebu. Options on three more Q300s, for delivery from
2009, will be taken up next year.
The low-cost carrier is aggressively expanding
turbo-prop operations to other local island destinations in the near
term as it taps into the booming leisure market.
-- Darwin G. Amojelar
|
