pakman
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Philippine Airline Is Set to Launch Low-Fare CarrierBy CRIS LARANOApril 16, 2008MANILA -- Philippine Airlines Inc., the country's largest carrier by fleet size, said it will start running local low-cost operations called PAL Express next month.PAL President Jaime Bautista said a fleet of nine turbo-propeller aircraft from Bombardier Aerospace, a unit of Canada-based Bombardier Inc., will be used for the inter-island operations."PAL Express will meet the growing demand of the traveling public for a high-quality carrier offering low fares," Mr. Bautista said.The fleet of turboprop aircraft, which will comprise three 50-seater Bombardier Q300s and six 76-seater Q400s, will fly mainly secondary domestic routes and will be based in the central Philippines island of Cebu."We will leverage the strength of the PAL brand to make PAL Express the leader in the markets it serves," Mr. Bautista said. "In turn, PAL benefits from the expansion of its network to areas it does not presently fly to, from where PAL Express aims to draw traffic to feed the main trunk routes."After a year of operations, the airline expects PAL Express to contribute around 300 million Philippine pesos, or some $7 million, to group net profit and one billion pesos to revenue.Mr. Bautista also expects PAL Express to help its parent realize its goal to increase passenger traffic 8% in the current fiscal year ending March from the 7.5 million recorded the previous fiscal year.Around 4.5 million of PAL's passengers last year were domestic travelers, he added.Mr. Bautista said PAL will invest around $150 million for PAL Express, including the cost of the fleet and refurbishing the Cebu hub.He said the airline is now in talks with several local banks for a $100 million loan to bankroll the project. The rest of the money will come from internally generated funds, he added.
