Philippine Airlines (PAL) is ready to acquire additional A350 and 777 widebody to increase capacity on its long-haul flights, confirmed Stanley Ng, acting president and chief operating officer. However, the airline is struggling with the process of adding new aircraft, said Ng, indicating that the airline could be looking at new investors. “Feelers from potential investors have come from Hong Kong and China as well as the Philippines itself,” he said.
PL says that it maintains a positive outlook for the year, with local demand strong and China reopening, but supply chain woes and jostling with global carriers for aircraft and spare parts are restraining growth, he said.
“If we can get more planes, we can expand immediately but we can’t,” Ng said. “There’s a plan to finalise new orders but it will take two years to deliver the aircraft.”
Almost a year ago, PAL emerged from a brief and voluntary bankruptcy process by downsizing its fleet and returning a number of its aircraft to lessors including four A350-900s.
PAL also currently operates nine 777-300ERs and ten A330-300s as a part of its widebody fleet.
“Getting the A350s back has been difficult and the soonest new aircraft can be delivered is 2025. Buying used aircraft is also not an option given the time and cost needed to reconfigure their interiors to fit the carrier’s business model. Consequently, it will not launch new long-haul routes this year. Even broken tray tables and seat recliners cannot be fixed immediately due to supply-chain bottlenecks,” Ng voiced his concerns.
PAL Holdings, parent company of Philippine airlines plans to acquire ten more aircraft over the next five years, Ng said without elaborating on the types, taking its fleet size to about 80 aircraft.