Intends To Return 10 Planes
3 August 2020
Flag Carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) announced Thursday that it intends to trim down its wide-body fleets of Boeing 777-300ERs, Airbus A350-900s and A330-300 fleet beginning this month as it failed to generate passenger traffic due to local and international flight restrictions brought by covid19 pandemic.
PAL President and COO Gilbert Santa Maria said they are looking to return four B777-300ER planes, three A350-900s and three A330-300 planes this month. It will also let go on long furlough about 100 flight crews and terminate their services if conditions don't improve by December.
The airline were only able to operate 123 regular flights in June, about 18 percent of its plan to mount 682 limited flights that month.
“These challenges did not deter us from operating 222 sweeper and repatriation flights and 640 all-cargo flights since March 2020,” Santa Maria said.
Sta. Maria disclosed it's final decision to pre-terminate leases will depend on the destinations that is likely to pick up in the coming months as it intend to axe some long haul flights serviced by these airplanes.
“For example, flights to destinations that are not likely to pick up in the coming months may be scrapped and, thus, the wide-bodied carriers may not be needed anymore” Santa Maria adds.
PAL is also preparing to downsize its narrow body fleet of Airbus A320s and A321. It already deferred deliveries of new aircraft earlier this year.
Sta. Maria said “Nothing is final yet, but management is doing everything it can so PAL will make it through this difficult time”. No information was disclosed as to how many narrow-body aircraft is going to be return to lessor. Inside sources described them to comprise about 50% of the narrow-body fleet.
Flag Carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) announced Thursday that it intends to trim down its wide-body fleets of Boeing 777-300ERs, Airbus A350-900s and A330-300 fleet beginning this month as it failed to generate passenger traffic due to local and international flight restrictions brought by covid19 pandemic.
PAL President and COO Gilbert Santa Maria said they are looking to return four B777-300ER planes, three A350-900s and three A330-300 planes this month. It will also let go on long furlough about 100 flight crews and terminate their services if conditions don't improve by December.
The airline were only able to operate 123 regular flights in June, about 18 percent of its plan to mount 682 limited flights that month.
“These challenges did not deter us from operating 222 sweeper and repatriation flights and 640 all-cargo flights since March 2020,” Santa Maria said.
Sta. Maria disclosed it's final decision to pre-terminate leases will depend on the destinations that is likely to pick up in the coming months as it intend to axe some long haul flights serviced by these airplanes.
“For example, flights to destinations that are not likely to pick up in the coming months may be scrapped and, thus, the wide-bodied carriers may not be needed anymore” Santa Maria adds.
PAL is also preparing to downsize its narrow body fleet of Airbus A320s and A321. It already deferred deliveries of new aircraft earlier this year.
Sta. Maria said “Nothing is final yet, but management is doing everything it can so PAL will make it through this difficult time”. No information was disclosed as to how many narrow-body aircraft is going to be return to lessor. Inside sources described them to comprise about 50% of the narrow-body fleet.
Enjoyed reading the article above , really explains everything in detail,the article is very interesting and effective.Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI expect the upcoming articles related to aviations or Aviation Deals
PAL money maker were the west coast flight from America. Which uses the 777 planes. Now he is giving up the planes. Trouble?? Bankruptcy???
ReplyDeleteNot giving up but returning some that are obviously sitting idle at MNL. They are setting up their own testing facility to add four daily flights to North America. That translate to about 50% of pre-covid capacity. It should help address utilization rates.
DeleteLetting in foreigners will create more jobs. The foreigner is being tested. No foreigners. No need to fly airplanes. Loss of jobs.
ReplyDeleteIf they would lease out 4 777s and 3 A359s, I would think that they are making a wrong decision. Better to keep the A359s and lease out 8 777s (even owned) but better to abandon JFK, YYZ and decrease LHR to 2-weekly. LAX must retain 7 plus 3 weekly flights while SFO must alternate between morning and evening flights (7-weekly). YVR must reduce to 5-weekly and make continuous codeshare with WestJet. LAX, being the most important route, must also codeshare with American Airlines. Elsewhere, PAL must adjust the whole route network and sacrifice underperforming routes into the chopping block. This will increase aircraft movements as well as improving profitability even at the middle of pandemic.
ReplyDelete