Flag carrier Philippine Airlines said it will deploy Boeing 777-300ER aircraft for its routes from Manila to North America to increase capacity in these flights.
The airline, led by billionaire Lucio Tan, recently took delivery of two Boeing aircraft which brought PAL’s fleet count to 88.
The spacious and luxurious 777, fitted with state-of-the-art inflight entertainment system, is expected to delight passengers on PAL’s long-haul flights.
PAL president and chief operating officer Jaime Bautista earlier said the additional seats and capacity would enable PAL to increase frequencies on trans-Pacific flights to the US Mainland and Canada.
PAL also uses Boeing 777 for its Manila-London flights.
The new acquisitions are part of the airline’s fleet modernization program, which, together with route network expansion and service innovations, is in line with PAL’s vision to be a five-star, full service national carrier of the Philippines.
PAL earlier posted a net loss of P3.5 billion in January to September, a significant downturn from the P2.96 billion total comprehensive income recognized in the same period last year.
Revenues in the nine-month period rose 15.6 percent to P98.63 billion from P85.35 billion a year earlier.
Passenger revenues increased to P81.96 billion from P71.47 billion, while cargo revenues went up to P6.09 billion from P4.94 billion.
Total expenses grew 27.3 percent to P103.82 billion from P81.55 billion, led by more flight frequencies and introduction of new routes.
Flying operations expenses increased 32.5 percent to P56.80 billion on higher fuel costs.
The escalation in average jet fuel price per barrel from $65.90 in 2016 to $73.92 in 2017 and the additional flights operated during the period resulted in a 50.4-percent increase in fuel costs.