Philippine Airlines has confirmed that it will begin cabin retrofit works on its Airbus A321s in May, as it unveils network expansion plans at its Cebu hub.
The national carrier does not indicate how many A321s will undergo the retrofit, except to state the narrowbodies, which will serve short-haul international routes, will have new seats, in-flight entertainment, and Wi-Fi.
PAL had 22 A321s in operation as at 31 December 2024, including four that operate with low-cost domestic unit PAL Express. The aircraft are configured with 199 seats.
The retrofit comes as the airline reportedly faces delays in new aircraft deliveries, including the first of nine A350-1000s it ordered in 2023.
According to media reports that cite airline executives, PAL’s first A350 is being delayed by three months and will only be delivered in the fourth quarter of the year. The airline’s orders for 13 A321s are reportedly also delayed beyond 2026.
PAL also disclosed an acquisition of two mid-life Boeing 777-300ERs, purportedly to mitigate the delivery delays, and these will operate on its North American flights.
Separately, the airline is expanding its capacity for its Cebu operations amid expectations of strong travel demand in the summer.
It will increase domestic frequencies by about 10% by April – to about 287 weekly flights – and up-gauge several flights from De Havilland Dash-8s to A321s.
The carrier is also expected to grow its international operations from Cebu, with the launch of non-stop flights to Ho Chi Minh City in May. PAL currently flies to Bangkok, Tokyo, Osaka and Seoul from Cebu.
The announcements follow the release of full-year financial results by parent company PAL Holdings.
For the year ended 31 December 2024, PAL Holdings saw its attributable net profit more than halve to Ps8.1 billion ($141.2 million).
This was on the back of a slight dip in revenue to Ps179.1 billion, with passenger revenues down 2.9% year on year, while cargo and ancillary revenue increased.
Despite seeing a 6% rise in passenger numbers to around 15.6 million, PAL says it saw a “general moderation of growth rates”, along with inflationary pressures and yield decline, during the year, which led to a decline in passenger revenues.
Group expenses rose 6% to Ps160 billion, with operations-related costs seeing the largest increase as PAL ramped up operations during the year.
