The parent firm of Philippine Airlines posted a lower comprehensive loss in the first quarter of the year on higher passenger revenues.
PAL Holdings Inc. registered a loss of P60.81 million in the first three months of 2019 from P201.63 million in the same period last year.
Consolidated revenues in the first quarter of 2019 amounted to P39.27 billion, up 7.2 percent from P36.62 billion year-on-year.
“The P2.65 billion improvement in revenues was primarily due to the increase in number of passengers as a result of additional flight frequencies and introduction of new routes,” said PAL Holdings.
Consolidated expenses in the quarter increased to P36.81 billion, 0.2 percent higher than the previous year’s same quarter total of P36.74 billion, mainly on account of higher maintenance, aircraft and traffic servicing and reservation and sales.
“This was partly offset by the decrease in flying operations and passenger service expenses,” the company said.
Flying operations expenses decreased 3.4 percent to P19.15 billion from P19.82 billion in the three months ending March last year mainly due to the decrease in fuel expenses.
Fuel costs dropped 10.2 percent following the decrease in the average fuel price from $88.36 per barrel in 2018 to $85.04 in 2019, partially offset by the increase in fuel consumption as a consequence of the increase in the number of flights operated.
Passenger service expenses decreased 6.4 percent due to lower passenger food and cabin crew costs.
Maintenance expenses rose 8.2 percent to P5.12 billion from last year’s quarter figure of P4.73 billion due to new aircraft deliveries that started in the second quarter of 2018.