Philippines Carrier Pal Express to Train 72 Pilots in May
MANILA, April 30 Asia Pulse - Some 72 new pilots will be trained by PAL Express, the budget fare unit of Philippine Airlines (PAL), the national flag carrier, starting May, this year, for its inter-island operation. Jaime Bautista, PAL president and COO, said the new pilots are being trained to handle turbo-propeller aircraft.
Mr Bautista said PAL is spending US$150 million for the acquisition and maintenance of nine turbo prop aircraft composed of three Q300s and six Q400s that PAL Express is acquiring this year.
"It plans to borrow US$100 million from a syndicate of banks to partially finance the aircraft while the balance would come from internal funds," Mr Bautista said.
The hiring of new pilots will significantly increase the number of PAL pilots from around 500.
It should be noted that half of the current PAL pilot personnel are fully trained.
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Mr Bautista said that PAL had increased the salaries and benefits of its pilots to prevent their exodus from the Philippines.
"There was one time it cost PAL almost US$8 million for additional benefits of pilots," Mr Bautista said, adding that the retirement pay of pilots was increased from 22.5 days to 1.5 months.
PAL will take over the Cebu hub operations of Air Philippines as well as its Manila-Caticlan flights.
Air Philippines will continue to fly from Manila to Iloilo, Zamboanga and Tuguegarao, he added.
Both airlines are majority owned by Lucio Tan.
When fully operational, PAL Express is expected to add one million passengers to the PAL network annually and contribute P1 billion (US$23.7 million) in revenues, including a net income of P300 million, Mr Bautista said.
The airline is reopening its Cebu hub from the turboprop fleet, which will serve the growing intra-regional market in the Visayas and Mindanao.
PAL's turboprop services are scheduled to take off on May 5, with eight flights daily from Manila to Caticlan, gateway to the resort island of Boracay.
In the third week of May, PAL will launch services of varying frequencies between Cebu and five points - Caticlan, Bacolod, Tacloban, Butuan, and General Santos.
In the same week, a daily flight between Manila and Busuanga in the northern Palawan will also start, along with a ninth day daily frequency to Caticlan.
In the last week of May, three more points will be added to the Cebu hub network; Davao with thrice daily flights; Iloilo, twice daily; and Puerto Princesa, a single daily flight.
The airline is offering a promo one-way fare of P88, excluding taxes and surcharges, as well as flights from Cebu to other southern cities. The special fare is available until May 18 and is good for travel from May 19 to August 15 only.
Mr Bautista said PAL is also buying six new Boeing 777, to be delivered until September next year.
(PNA)
Frankly, I'm wondering where the $8 million went?