Philippine Airlines vowed to stay aloft amid the global pandemic as it works towards the full recovery of the airline and the travel sector.
“Our message to our country and the world: Buhay pa tayo. Andito pa tayo. At hindi tayo aalis. [PAL is alive. We’re still here, and we’re here to stay. This great lady—Philippine Airlines—will stay aloft while she is in our care,” PAL president and chief operating officer Gilbert Santa Maria said in celebration of PAL’s 80th anniversary.
He said despite the challenges of the pandemic, the flag carrier was focusing on repatriation and cargo transport efforts and rebuilding the network of commercial flights on key international and domestic routes.
PAL carried home 310,000 of the displaced 420,000 overseas Filipinos to their respective provinces from March 2020 to the present.
It said within the same period, tens of thousands of foreign nationals also flew back to their home countries via PAL. The airline is airlifting shipments of anti-COVID vaccines to several areas in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.
The flag carrier also restored regular commercial flights to the US, Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and several Asian countries and most domestic trunk and inter-island routes.
PAL’s parent firm PAL Holdings Inc. earlier reported comprehensive loss of P29.03 billion in the first nine months of 2020, up 269 percent from the P7.86-billion loss in the same period in 2019.
It said that in third quarter alone, losses reached P7 billion.
Consolidated revenues in the first nine months of 2020 amounted to P45.29 billion, or 61.6 percent lower than P117.85 billion it recognized in 2019.
“The reduction in revenues was mainly due to the drop in passenger and ancillary revenues as a result of flight cancellations starting March 2020 due to COVID-19,” PHI said.
The airline laid off 1,400 workers who already received separation pay amounting to more than P2 billion.
The Department of Labor and Employment-National Capital Region said the 1,455 affected workers of the flag carrier were able to receive their separation pay worth P2.31 billion.
They included workers who were affected by voluntary and involuntary separation from the company and were employed until March 12.
The DOLE-NCR, through its Makati-Pasay Field Office, received in February a series of notice of termination from PAL for the affected workers.
PAL announced on February 2 a company-wide workforce reduction program affecting 2,300 employees. However, the management decided to retain 845 workers.
The payment of separation pay took place from Feb. 17 to 22, which was witnessed by the DOLE-NCR MPFO upon request of the company.
PAL’s HR Department the airline provided separation pay equivalent to one-month pay for every year of service, including outplacement assistance to help ease the transition.