The airline is currently facing challenges despite considering growing its widebody fleet.
Philippine Airlines wants to increase the number of widebody aircraft in its fleet to improve its long-haul operations. According to Stanley Ng, the airline’s president and chief operational officer, the national carrier of the Philippines is having trouble locating available Airbus A350 or Boeing 777 aircraft. This was revealed in an interview with the neighborhood newspaper Inquirer.
limited growth
Philippine Airlines is confident that 2023 will be a profitable year due to the rising demand for air travel, robust domestic markets, and China’s reopening. This follows last year, when the airline reported profitable quarterly results for the first time in a number of years.Philippine Airlines is looking forward to a profitable year and is keen to grow and expand. Ng claims that the airline is however experiencing expansion limitations as a result of supply-chain concerns and rivalry with international carriers for aircraft and spare parts.
The airline’s complete return to pre-COVID capacity, having recently emerged from Chapter 11 procedures, rests on the accessibility of widebody aircraft. The airline will have limited options for adding new long-haul routes without access to extra widebody aircraft. Says Ng:
“We could grow right now if we could get more planes, but we can’t. Although [new orders] are set to be finalized, it will take two years to deliver the aircraft.According to data from ch-aviation.com, the flag carrier of the Philippines currently has 21 widebody aircraft in its fleet, including 10 Airbus A330s, nine Boeing 777-300ERs, and two Airbus A350-900 jets. Notably, the airline was had to file for Chapter 11 during the pandemic and was consequently forced to limit its capacity, which included putting six of its Airbus A350-900 aircraft on the ground because of financial constraints. Ng claims that it has been difficult to recover grounded aircraft and that the earliest the airline will have access to new aircraft will be in 2025.
reviving the fleet
For some time, the Philippine flag carrier has been talking about fortifying its fleet. The airline announced its intention to reactivate every aircraft before the end of the year in March 2023. According to ch-aviation.com, the airline currently has three Airbus A321s and one Airbus A320 in storage.
Moreover, Stanley Ng revealed at the airline’s 82nd anniversary celebration that the company was thinking about switching from its current flagship Airbus A350-900s to the larger A350-1000s. Ng did not specify the precise type of jet in a recent interview with the Inquirer, but he did mention ambitions to buy ten more over the following five years. Its fleet will grow to about 80 planes when some of its older jets are retired and new planes are added.The airline is also open to the idea of accepting additional investors. Ng also noted that there had been requests from potential investors in the Philippines, Hong Kong, China, and other countries now that conditions were better financially.
