While Philippine Airlines (PAL) is "optimistic" about its 2022 financial performance and 2023 prospects, the flag carrier does not expect to recover fully until 2027-2028, when its regains its pre-pandemic fleet number of 98 aircraft from the current 68.
"We've got a good year for 2022 and financially, we're better off after our restructure but we're still a work in progress," President & COO Capt. Stanley K. Ng told reporters during PAL's 82nd anniversary media luncheon on Wednesday, March 15.
Already, PAL is bringing out seven planes from storage to put them back into service within this year to boost the number of their operating aircraft tp 75, he disclosed.
They are also planning to have 13 new planes delivered.
During the pandemic, PAL revised its aircraft delivery schedule to align with the forecasted recovery of travel demand.
The flag carrier has postponed the deliveries of these 13 aircraft and rescheduled them for 2026-2030.
Under its restructuring plan, PAL downsized its fleet to generate some $2.1 billion savings in payments to creditors and aircraft leasing companies,
Hence, the airline returned 21 planes to lessors and reduced its fleet size by 23 pervent snd scrapped unprofitable long-haul routes.
It will consolidate U.S. flights to the West Coast gateways and cancel ultra long-haul routes, particularly in New York and Toronto.