MANILA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines Airlines (PAL) announced on Thursday a comprehensive loss of 183.1 million U.S. dollars for the first quarter of 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"PAL registered a healthy net income of 37 million U.S. dollars in January 2020, a 10 percent improvement over 2019, before the pandemic forced a slowdown in February and the eventual suspension of domestic and international flights within March 2020," the airlines said.
In a statement, the country's flag carrier said that it will adopt "cost control strategies" to deal with the impact that includes a delay in the delivery of the new aircraft, the suspension of capital expenditures, adoption of a skeletal workforce, slashing senior management salaries and non-essential expenses.
Moreover, PAL said its shareholders have infused new capital and endorsed "an aggressive strategy" to generate revenues and control costs, as the airline gears up for a "new normal" in air transportation.
The airline operated 640 local and international cargo flights carrying crucial medical and food supplies since March, and it also mounted 222 sweeper and repatriation flights that flew home stranded passengers from various countries.
In June and July, the PAL restored a number of regular weekly commercial flights to different countries including the United States, Japan, Canada, Britain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and some domestic flights.
The airline said it will offer 122 weekly domestic and international flights by the start of August, with plans to progressively increase routes and flight frequencies as travel demand recovers.
The PAL in May reported a net loss of 203 million U.S. dollars in 2019 and the airline said it had laid off 300 ground staff as part of a business restructuring plan to manage the company losses in February. Enditem
