After five-year hiatus, PAL reopens aviation school

Philippine Airlines and Airways Aviation hold a signing ceremony on Thursday at Lucio K. Tan Jr. Center, Pasay City to seal their partnership. —TYRONE JASPER C. PIAD

MANILA, Philippines — After nearly five years, Philippine Airlines (PAL) is reopening its aviation school in partnership with Australian pilot training institute Airways Aviation as the flag carrier builds up its pilot roster in response to growing travel demand.

Stanley Ng, president and chief operating officer of the Lucio Tan-led airline, said in their signing ceremony on Thursday they want to train more pilots who will service their route expansion.

“For PAL, we want to be assured of a steady pipeline of pilots who will meet our manpower needs in line with our expansion plans in the future,” he said.

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Airways Aviation is a training institute that has presence in Europe, Australia, Middle East, India and Africa.

PAL general counsel Carlos Luis Fernandez said the airline’s aviation school had produced more than 1,200 pilots over the last six decades but it had to shut down in June 2020 because of the pandemic.

“Today, we proudly reopened the school,” Fernandez said. “We would need a new generation of high-performing aviation professionals trained in-house to the most rigorous of standards.”

The airline has started the selection process for the first batch of 20 students. The training, which will last 18 months, is set to begin by the end of July.

The chosen trainees will be flown to Australia to study at Airways Aviation’s facility.

Program cost

The program will cost approximately P4.5 million, which also includes meals and lodging.

In support of aspiring women pilots, PAL pledged P10 million to the PAL Foundation to provide scholarships to four trainees.

READ: Women who conquer the skies

PAL currently has 789 pilots and 2,373 cabin crew members.

This year, Ng said they were aiming to grow passenger volume by 10 percent to 20 percent as the airline expands its route network and aircraft fleet.

This will translate to a total passenger volume of 17.16 million to 18.72 million, which is beyond the 16.76 million guests the airline flew in 2019 or prior to the pandemic. Last year, it flew 15.6 million passengers, up 6 percent from 2023.