Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) will soon land on the doorsteps of its customers with the launch of last-mile cargo delivery services, a segment that has been growing due to the e-commerce boom during the pandemic.
Stanley Ng, PAL president and chief operating officer, said the airline was targeting to officially introduce the new service offering in a “month or two.”
“It (cargo delivery service) is on the way,” he told the reporters on the sidelines of a recent event in Makati.
The airline is collaborating with a logistics company for this service. Ng said PAL would want to have more partners moving forward.
The PAL official disclosed that the flag carrier had conducted some trials last month, which were deemed “successful.”
Pilot tests
For the test runs, he said the packages coming from the United States were delivered to the homes here in the Philippines, most of which were in Metro Manila.
“[It is] starting but not that big yet, not that automated yet. We’re doing it but [with] a little manual process,” he added.
Aiming to benefit from the rapidly growing e-commerce industry, Ng first announced the plan to offer last-mile delivery services last month when the airline celebrated its 81st anniversary.
Along with this, the flag carrier wants to offer hybrid cargo and passenger flights to the United States and other countries and a new cargo reservation system, among others.
Lucrative segment
The cargo segment is deemed an essential revenue channel given the recent downturn in passenger traffic because of the mobility restrictions during the pandemic.
In fact, PAL’s parent firm said in its 2021 annual report that the “significant increase in revenues was mainly due to the increase in cargo revenues as air cargo has been a vital partner in delivering essential goods since the COVID-19 pandemic.”
PAL Holdings Inc. saw its cargo revenues rise by 59 percent to P15.02 billion last year from P9.43 billion in 2020. Total revenues were up 6 percent to P58.70 billion last year.
The net income of the PAL operator swung back to profitability with P60.61-billion income last year, mostly because of other income from debt settlement and/or condonation.
In December 2021, PAL announced its exit from a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy process in the United States as it completed a financial restructuring plan that eliminated $2.1 billion worth of obligations. INQ