Philippine Airlines may cut capacity to the Middle East next year amid intensifying competition and weaker outbound demand, according to Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
“PAL could suspend services to Abu Dhabi and terminate its partnership with Etihad. The airline group has not benefitted significantly from its Etihad codeshare, and may be better off partnering with another airline,” the think tank said.
PAL destinations in the Middle East include Qatar, Riyadh, Dubai, Dammam, Jeddah, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi.
PAL, however, said it was keen on continuing its international expansion.
The airline plans to add capacity to the US using two additional 777-300ERs and add capacity to Australia in late 2017 following the delivery of its first batch of A321neoLRs.
New destinations in Europe and the US are under consideration for 2018, using the new A350-900 fleet, In the Chinese market, PAL is looking to launch Chengdu.
PAL plans to commence the Clark-Caticlan daily flights at Clark Airport starting Dec. 16 and will add more flights starting January 2017, including Cebu, Davao, Busuanga and Cagayan de Oro.
PAL will also launch daily international flights to Incheon, South Korea by January next year.
PAL’s route network covers 43 international and 30 domestic destinations.
PAL earlier reported a total total comprehensive income of P2.96 billion in the first nine months, lower by 54.8 percent than the previous year’s total comprehensive income of P6.55 billion.