A stabilising Philippine Airlines shoots for five-star rating

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Jaime Bautista, president and COO, PAL

Philippine Airlines (PAL), as part of its “nose-to-tail reinvention” currently underway, is aiming to become a five-star, full-service carrier by 2020, said president and COO Jaime Bautista on the sidelines of AAPA’s 60th Assembly of Presidents last week. The airline is currently rated three star on Skytrax.

When Bautista returned to PAL in late 2014 after Lucio Tan Group took back control of the airline from San Miguel Corp, initiatives were mapped out to remedy the carrier’s identity crisis and employees’ low morale.

This includes shedding PAL’s LCC inclinations and positioning it as the national carrier of the Philippines, a move that required a reconfiguration of the mono-class aircraft with tight seat pitch ordered by the previous administration.

Fleet modernisation is now in the works, with the delivery of Boeing 777 two weeks ago and another expected in mid-December, in addition to the five A321s in 2016. By next year, eight A330s will be reconfigured with business, premium economy and economy class seats for medium-haul flights to Australia and Honolulu.

As well, Bautista shared that “with limited capacity to grow in congested NAIA”, PAL is increasingly using other hubs like Cebu and Clark.

After launching the Cebu-Los Angeles service this year, the airline also plans to increase frequencies to Los Angeles and San Francisco and open routes to Chicago and Texas when it takes delivery of A350 in 2018.

Despite stepping up frequency to daily on the London route, expansion to Europe is on hold, said Bautista.

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