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DESPITE the company’s plan to cut its workforce,
Philippine Airlines (PAL) on Friday announced it will beef up its
domestic operations with new routes and destinations.
In a statement, the Lucio
Tan-owned company said it will introduce a new Cebu-Davao and
Davao-Cebu service using the wide-body Airbus A330 starting
September 1.
Its budget airline, PAL Express
will add another daily Cebu-Iloilo-Cebu flight using the 76-seater
Q400 turboprop aircraft.
Surigao and Naga are also being
added to the PAL Express network with daily flights to Surigao and
twice a day service to Naga.
Earlier, Jaime Bautista, PAL
president and chief operating officer, said it would cut its
workforce and flight capacity abroad to cope with the global
economic slowdown.
“We are currently reviewing our
entire organizational set-up,” Bautista said, adding that the
crisis has changed the face of the industry which is among the
sectors hardest hit by the global crisis.
“We don’t know yet how many
will be affected. For now, we don’t have a target. I talked to the
union about the plan yesterday. In a few weeks, we will know how
many will be affected,” he added.
At end-March, PAL had a workforce
of 8,052. Of the total, 472 are pilots and 1,593 are cabin crew.
Bautista said the airline’s
cost-cutting measures will not infringe on its safety compliance and
standards.
PAL will reduce flight capacity
to the US, Canada, Australia, Japan and Hong Kong, he said.
About 7 percent of the
airline’s total capacity would be reduced effective this month
until March 2010.
At end-March, PAL’s route
network covered 29 points in the Philippines and 31 international
destinations.
The company reported a net income
of $35.5 million from April to June, down by $9.6 million over the
same period last year.
Revenues dropped by 12 percent to
$394 million compared with $446.9 million for the same period in
2008.
PAL blamed the lower revenues on
the 25-percent decrease in passenger revenues of $95 million as
passenger traffic and yields continued to decline.
For its fiscal year ending March,
PAL posted a net loss of $301 million from a net profit of $30.6
million in the fiscal year ending March 2008.
The company’s total expenses
for the first quarter amounted to $358.5 million, 11 percent better
than the previous year’s $401.8 million. Fuel comprised 44 percent
of its operating expenses.
-Darwin G. Amojelar
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