News
PAL to take delivery of 27 aircraft by 2021
September 8th 2017
Manila-based Philippine Airlines (PAL) will increase its fleet from 82 to 96 aircraft by 2021, its president and chief operating officer, Jaime Bautista, told a news conference at the Management Association of the Philippines general meeting. Read More »
"In doing so, we will phase out 18 older aircraft and take delivery of 27 brand-new airplanes,” Bautista said. PAL’s outstanding orders are 21 A321neo, including an unspecified number of neoLRs, six A350-900s and two B777-300ERs. The remaining two -300ERs will arrive before year-end and the A321neo and A350 deliveries will begin in 2018.
“Next year, we will start flying the A321neo, including a special longer-range version that will enable us to launch nonstop services to Brisbane, Delhi, Perth, Mumbai and Sapporo Chitose, as well as increase flights to Melbourne Tullamarine and other Asia-Pacific destinations,” Bautista said.
“Also in 2018, we are excited about the introduction of the A350 as our new ultra-long-range flagship, a 295-seat wide-body airplane that will help us link the Philippines nonstop to New York JFK, Chicago O'Hare, Seattle Tacoma and far-flung points in Europe and North America,” he said.
The final two B777-300ERs will arrive in Manila by December and be used to add frequency on the airline’s existing trans-Pacific routes. PAL flies to New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver with the Boeing wide body jet and to Honolulu with an A330-300.
In other Philippines aviation news, Philippines AirAsia is planning to reopen its base at Clark International in January, due to the worsening congestion at Manila’s primary airport, Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
“Initially, we scheduled it for around November or December, but there was a delayed delivery of the Airbus [A320] units, so it was moved to January,” Philippines AirAsia CEO, Dexter Comendador, told Business World.
“It’s going to be a primary base for us. We were born in Clark. We will come back,” Comendador said. “It’s useless to compete with PAL and Cebu Pacific Air here [at NAIA]. The runway is very limited and it has reached peak capacity.”
Philippines AirAsia has 17 A320s, serving 20 destinations, including routes from NAIA to Shanghai, Seoul, Kota Kinabalu and Macau. From January, it plans to add flights from Clark to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. At the moment, the airline flies domestically from Clark to Davao and Kalibo.
Aside from NAIA and soon Clark, Philippines AirAsia also has bases in Cebu, Davao and Kalibo. Another base, in Bohol, is under consideration, Comendador said.
