MANILA, Philippines — PAL Holdings Inc., the parent firm of flag carrier Philippine Airlines, saw its losses widen in the nine months ending September on the back of higher expenses.
PAL Holdings in a stock exchange filing said total comprehensive loss from January to September expanded by 139.2 percent to P7.86 billion from P3.29 billion in the same period last year.
Consolidated revenues for the nine months, however, reached P117.92 billion, 5.6 percent higher than the P111.62 billion last year.
“The increase was mainly from passenger and ancillary revenues due to additional frequencies and new routes which resulted in the growth in passenger volume. This was partly offset by the decrease in cargo revenues by 7.9 percent,” PAL Holdings said.
Meanwhile, consolidated operating expenses for the nine-month period rose by 2.2 percent to P117.13 billion.
PAL Holdings said the increase was due to the increase in maintenance expense by 8.8 percent, as well as in aircraft and traffic servicing expenses by 2.7 percent driven by the growth in fleet, passenger and network operations.
PAL, the country’s only four-star global airline, has a network covering more than 30 domestic and 40 international destinations with a young fleet of 98 advanced-technology aircraft.
The flag carrier is ranked as the 30th Best Airline in the world, having recently been awarded the World’s Most Improved Airline honors for 2019 by Skytrax and the 4-Star Major Airline award from the US-based Airline Passenger Experience Association.