PAL confirms looking to buy dozen B787s or A350s

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Philippine Airlines (PAL) has confirmed it is in talks with Airbus and Boeing to buy as many as 12 wide-body aircraft and will decide on the purchase before the end of the year, the flag carrier’s president Jaime Bautista told Reuters, recently. PAL in August had said it was planning to buy eight planes, but Bautista said the amount had increased to cater to growing demand for long-haul flights to the US and Europe.

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Jaime Bautista

PAL will put firm orders for six aircraft worth around US$1 billion for delivery in 2017 and 2018, with the option to buy six more aircraft for 2019 and 2020 delivery depending on the growth of the long-haul market, Bautista added. “It’s either the Boeing 787 or the Airbus 350. That is what we are studying now,” he said.

Earlier, CAPA Centre for Aviation had reported that Philippine Airlines had chosen the A350-900 as a replacement for its ageing fleet ofA340-300s, without citing a source. Of the order, CAPA reported that an undisclosed number will be High Gross Weight variants which will enable PAL to start non-stop flights to the eastern US – New York JFK and Chicago O’Hare in particular.

Philippine Airlines’ widebody fleet currently consists of fifteen A330-300s, six A340-300s, and six B777-300ERs. The carrier, with hubs at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport and Mactan–Cebu International Airport flies to 70 destinations with 93 routes and 265 daily flights.

Meanwhile, PAL is adding five international destinations over the next two months, including two destinations in the Middle East and three in Australasia. Long haul growth will resume in March 2016 with the launch of services from Cebu to Los Angeles, which will be PAL’s first widebody international route from Cebu. Long haul expansion opportunities will come again in late 2016 as PAL adds two more B777-300ERs.

PAL and Taiwanese carrier China Airlines have also recently signed reciprocal codeshare agreements. With this new codeshare agreement the Manila-based carrier now has a codeshare partner with at least one carrier from each of the major airline alliances. Philippine Airlines also has codeshare agreements with All Nippon Airways (ANA), Etihad, WestJet, Cathay Pacific, Turkish Airlines, and Malaysia Airlines.