The Philippine Airlines (PAL) on Friday reported an operating income of $297.2 million last year, its first positive full-year earnings since 2019.
The airline registered an operating loss of $98.1 million in 2021, which reflected the severe pandemic-era travel restrictions and operating conditions prevailing that year.
The flag carrier’s total comprehensive income amounted to $196.9 million last year, lower than a prior $1.21 billion comprehensive income, which included a $1.44 billion net gain from debt restructuring.
PAL’s positive performance was sustained in all four quarters of 2022 and largely the result of rising demand in air travel that followed the easing of travel restrictions and the reopening of borders in most countries.
“We are very grateful for the support of our customers that has enabled us to achieve this positive result amidst a challenging year. Philippine Airlines continues to be on a journey of recovery and renewal, and we will make good use of our resources to improve our services for the benefit of our valued customers. We are even more determined to upgrade our fleet, build more connections to key markets and offer improved products and services.”
Captain Stanley K. Ng, PAL president and chief operating officer
“We also thank our shareholders, our service partners, and our dedicated employee work force whose tireless efforts have led to continuing progress in our recovery journey. We embrace our mission of service and remain committed to work with government and industry partners to help boost the Philippines’ economic and tourism development goals,” he added.
PAL flights achieved an average passenger load factor of 72 percent last year, nearly thirty percentage points higher than the previous year’s 42.6 percent load factor.
The flag carrier flew a total 9.3 million passengers in 2022, comprising the operations of both the PAL mainline network as well as PAL Express. This represents an increase of 214 percent from the 2021 carriage level.
Total operating expenses for 2022 amounted to $2.27 billion, an increase of $960.3 million over 2021’s $1.31 billion total, due to the increase in the number of flights operated, coupled with the impact of rising fuel prices in the world market. Jet fuel costs represent the highest expense item for the airline.
The Philippine flag carrier continued to expand its route network in 2022, adding flights to most of its overseas destinations in North America, Asia, Australia and the Middle East, while pioneering economy-boosting and tourism-generating domestic routes such as Cebu- Baguio, Cebu- Borongan and Cotabato- Tawi-Tawi.
Thus far this year, PAL has inaugurated an historic nonstop Manila-Perth link while reopening multiple routes between the Philippines and points in mainland China. Apart from an extensive domestic network anchored on gateway hubs in Manila, Cebu and Davao, PAL is the only airline operating nonstop flights linking the Philippines to the U.S. and Canada, along with the largest network of flights from Manila to multiple cities in the Middle East.
