Philippine Airlines said Thursday it may drop some unprofitable routes to mitigate the impact of rising jet fuel prices.
“There are routes that are not making money, so we will stop flying to these destinations,” PAL president and chief operating officer Jaime Bautista told journalists in a news briefing.
PAL, whose profit was dragged down by high fuel prices last year, stopped flying Manila to Kuwait on May 16 because of weak demand and stiff competition.
“The review of the routes is a continuing process. We have a corporate planning group that looks at all destinations and if the destinations that we plan is not profitable, we will discontinue this,” Bautista said.
PAL’s fuel expense went up by $200 million to $749 million last year from $549 million in 2016.
Jet fuel prices rose by another $13 per barrel in the first four months of 2018 from a year ago.
Data from the International Air Transportation Association showed that jet fuel prices averaged $91.4 a barrel as of May 25, up by 41.7 percent from a year earlier.