Philippine Airlines to Add 100 New Airbus and Boeing Planes to Upgrade Fleet

Philippine Airlines Airbus A340

The new president of Philippine Airlines (PAL) says his carrier will acquire 100 new airliners over the next 5 years to upgrade its fleet with newer, more efficient aircraft.

PAL president Ramon Ang said they are looking at single-aisle planes such as the Airbus A320 and A321 as well as longer range aircraft.

“These 100 aircraft will include the ones we will buy to replace the old ones we have in our fleet now,” Ang said.

PAL has only 7 Boeing planes out of their current 37 plane fleet. But Ang says they would like to expand their Boeing fleet as well.

In addition to the routes they already fly…Los Angeles and San Francisco, PAL plans to expand to New York, Chicago and Florida. They also plan to reactivate routes to Europe.

“We want to fly to New York, Chicago and Florida, on top of our present routes to Los Angeles and San Francisco,” he said, explaining that these US cities have large Filipino-American communities that would be a rich market for PAL.

PAL’s expansion is dependent on regaining “Category 1” status with the US Federal Aviation Administration. PAL was downgraded to Category 2 several years ago due to the local regulator’s inability to enforce safety standards.

Ang says they will work hard to regain Category 1 status.

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Image: Flickr [airforcefe]