PAL posted rare profit in ’14
MANILA, Philippines–PAL Holdings Inc., the listed operator of flag carrier Philippine Airlines, closed 2014 with a rare profit as passenger revenues surged, a stock exchange filing on Thursday showed.
PAL Holdings reported that its net income in 2014 reached P129.74 million. Although it did not provide full-year earnings for 2013, PAL Holdings posted P11.85 billion in net losses in the nine months to December 2013.
PAL, which controls 30.5 percent of the domestic market, said passenger revenues rose significantly when it began selling tickets for new routes, such as the Manila-New York flights, following the lifting of restrictions imposed by the United States Federal Aviation Administration.
Its transpacific business alone accounted for 31.4 percent of revenues at the end of 2014, PAL said. Asia and Australia accounted for 41.9 percent.
PAL carried 9.6 million passengers in 2014, as opposed to five million in the nine months to December 2013. It said total revenues last year hit P100.95 billion—up 80.3 percent. PAL said passenger revenues accounted for 81 percent of the total for the entire 2014.
PAL noted that the average yield for the year was up by 4 percent. Cargo revenues represent 7.8 percent of total revenues.
The airline also said that total operating expenses amounted to P98.58 billion last year—up by 60.3 percent, in 2014.
“While the figures being compared are for one year versus the previous nine-month period which are not comparable, the main drivers for the difference are attributable to flying operations, aircraft and traffic servicing, passenger service and reservation and sales,” PAL said.
PAL noted that jet fuel accounted for the single biggest operating expense. It said spending for jet fuel reached P38.8 billion.
The better figures comes as PAL Holdings underwent a shareholder transition in 2014, when tycoon Lucio Tan assumed full control of the carrier after buying out the shares held by conglomerate San Miguel Corp.
