PAL to acquire 4 new aircraft in March

MANILA, Philippines – Legacy carrier Philippines Airlines (PAL) hopes to acquire 4 new aircraft before the end of March, as part of its aggressive re-fleeting program.

“We are looking if we can buy additional four Airbus long range aircraft. If we are able to close the deal this month, the delivery could be as early as next month,” PAL president and CEO Ramon S. Ang told reporters after the special stockholders’ meeting of PAL Holdings Inc. on Friday, March 16.

Ang said that the airline is looking at acquiring either Airbus A330 aircraft that could be used for long haul flights to Honolulu, Australia or Japan, or A340 that could be used for Transpacific destinations, such as the US, Canada or Europe. The details of the deal are still being finalized but the lease price of each Airbus A330 is about US$230 million.

The company is also expecting the delivery of 16 new Airbus aircraft, which should begin arriving in August. Half of the arriving aircraft will be used by PAL while the other 8 will be used by PAL Express (formerly Airphil Express). Ang added that PAL also expects the delivery of 3 Boeing 777 aircraft this year.

“The aircrafts (that we ordered) are already on their way starting August. The 16 aircrafts will be delivered already. The 8 wide body and the 8 narrow body that will be used for regional (operations),” said Ang.

“With the new (aircraft) acquisitions, most of our old aircrafts will be retired,” he added.

This comes as part of an aggressive refleeting program aimed at acquiring nearly 100 new aircraft.

PAL entered into a $7 billion contract with Airbus in August last year for the acquisition of 54 aircraft and another $2.5 billion deal in September for 10 A330 aircraft.

Ang said PAL would likely acquire 71 new aircraft this year including 68 Airbus aircraft from EADS and 3 from Boeing Co.

The legacy carrier has an existing fleet of 42 aircraft consisting of five Boeing B747-400s, four B777-300ERs, four Airbus A340-300s, eight A330-300s, seventeen A320-200s, and four A319-100s.

San Miguel Corporation embarked on this ambitious fleet expansion after it spent $500 million to acquire a 49% stake in PAL in April last year. These new acquisitions aim to turn an ailing airline into a profitible one by expanding its route network to lucrative destinations across the US, Europe and Middle East.

“I think we have achieved more than what we have expected in the reorganization and [are making an] improvement for PAL,” Ang said. – Rappler.com