Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) on Tuesday bared raising its capital expenditures (capex) by 164 percent this year to finance aircraft acquisition and maintenance.
Anna Isabel V. Bengzon, PAL chief financial officer and senior vice president, briefed reporters saying the airline has set aside some $450 million as capex this year, higher than capex of only $170 million in 2023.
Bengzon said 80 percent of the budget will be used to refurbish aircraft, maintenance upgrade, and payments for delivery.
She said internally-generated funds and support from both domestic and global lenders finance the capex program.
PAL recently acquired an additional 777-300 ER aircraft as initial step towards renewing its long-haul fleet.
“We are progressively renewing our fleet. We ordered nine airbus A350 1000s for routes to North America. Deliveries will start in 2025. The regional routes take in 13 Airbus 321 neos for delivery from 2026 to 2029,” Carlos Luis Fernandez, PAL senior vice president and general counsel, said.
Fernandez also said PAL will start flying from Manila to Seattle, USA on 2 Octobe this year, (making PAL) the first carrier to link the Philippines and the US Pacific Northwest region with direct flights that will help stimulate business and leisure travel of US residents to the Philippines.
Over 900,000 Americans visited the Philippines in 2023, making the U.S. the country’s second largest source of tourists.
The Philippine flag carrier will also serve the growing number of Filipinos visiting family and friends in Washington and Oregon, which are home to more than 240,000 Filipino Americans.
“Our Manila-Seattle-Manila flights give us a valuable opportunity to promote our beautiful island country as a flourishing tourist and business destination for American travellers,” PAL president and chief operating officer Captain Stanley K. Ng said.
“We also look forward to serving Filipinos who hope to reunite with family members or experience new travel adventures in the vibrant U.S. Pacific Northwest,” he added.
The Seattle flights will provide connectivity via Manila to PAL’s extensive domestic and regional international network, including cities such as Cebu, Davao, Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur.
The Seattle flights will add up to 60 tons of cargo capacity every week that will further contribute to increased trade and economic activity between the U.S. and Asia.
Seattle is PAL’s eighth destination in North America. The Philippine carrier already operates 46 weekly flights to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver, New York, Toronto, Honolulu and Guam.
The Philippine carrier will deploy Boeing 777-300ER aircraft to perform the Seattle services, with full-flat seats in Business Class and PAL’s hallmark inflight service featuring Filipino and Western meal specialties.
To promote the new Manila-Seattle service, PAL is offering a special introductory all-in roundtrip fare at $771 for Economy Class and $3,071 for Business Class.
The introductory fare is available until 30 April 2024 and for travel from 02 October to 30 November 2024 as well as from February 1 to March 22, 2025.
