PAL lays off 300 employees

February 28, 2020

Philippine Airlines (PAL) on Friday said it has laid off about 300 employees.

PAL said it is pursuing business restructuring to increase revenues and reduce costs. 

“The streamlining will strengthen the company in the wake of losses sustained in 2019, aggravated by the ongoing travel restrictions and flight suspensions to areas affected by COVID-19,” PAL said.

Under the program, PAL implemented a voluntary separation initiative for long-serving employees. A retrenchment process completed on February 28, resulted in the separation of about 300 ground-based administrative and management personnel.

PAL said affected employees will receive appropriate separation benefits, additional trip pass privileges, and assistance in the form of career counseling and outplacement support.   

“Other initiatives include revenue generation from an optimized route network and new ancillary products, more aggressive cost-management efforts, and investment in digital technology,”’the airline said.

PAL Holdings Inc., PAL’s parent firm, earlier reported a net loss of P7.86 billion in the first nine months of 2019, up 139 percent from a total comprehensive loss of P3.29 billion in 2018.

Consolidated revenues in the January-to-September period amounted to P117.92 billion, up by 5.6 percent from P111.62 billion on year.

PAL Holding’s consolidated operating expenses rose 2.2 percent to P117.13 billion from last year’s P114.67 billion. DMS