Philippine Airlines (PAL) is on track to meet its 16-million passenger target this year as it expects a significant surge in traffic in the third quarter.
PAL said its load factor increased this May compared to last month for domestic and international flights, while booking for June is quite healthy.
“For April, it looks flat. In May, it’s getting better again. We have seen the load factor increasing by 3 percentage point in May (versus April) both international (and domestic),” said Capt. Stanley Ng, PAL president and chief operating officer.
Last year, PAL flew 14.7 million passenger.
“The load factor is doing well. The third quarter, July-August is the strongest,” Ng added.
With the anticipated surge in passenger volume, PAL has entered a wet lease agreement with Wamos Air, one of Europe’s leading charter and wet lease carriers.
The agreement involves leasing two Airbus A330-200s with a dual-class configuration for five months starting on June 1.
These two aircraft will operate in PAL’s Manila-Sydney-Manila and Manila-Melbourne-Manila flights.
Passengers will receive comparable amenities to PAL’s A330 and the same on-ground and inflight services available on a PAL flight.
This agreement aims to ensure PAL’s effective fleet management and operational resilience during the upcoming peak travel period, the airline said.
“We have additional maintenance requirements during this period due to global supply chain issues that continue to impact the industry. We see the need to temporarily add these aircraft to ensure that we have sufficient capacity to meet the demand that we are anticipating across our network,” Ng said in a statement.
In a wet lease arrangement, the lessor provides aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance to another airline for a specified period.
Wamos Air is certified by the International Air Transport Association’s Operational Safety Audit, and has completed wet lease operations for over 50 airlines globally.
PAL operates daily flights to Sydney and five times weekly services to Melbourne.
PAL’s fleet of Boeing, Airbus and De Havilland aircraft operate scheduled nonstop flights out of hubs in Manila, Cebu, Clark and Davao to 32 destinations in the Philippines as well as 40 destinations in Asia, North America, Australia and the Middle East.
