Everything old is new again

Old faces and a new direction for Philippine Airlines

With octogenarian tobacco tycoon Lucio Tan back holding the purse strings and former president Jaime J Bautista – known as Jimmy to his friends – president again, Philippine Airlines (PAL) is set on significant international expansion.

It should be fun to watch as the carrier once tagged “Asia’s Sunniest Airline” strives to launch itself into a new era of summer weather. So far it seems all the tarot cards are falling the right way up. Thanks to the recent decision of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to upgrade the airline’s air safety rating and the removal of a European Union ban on the country’s carriers, new opportunities are flying at PAL from all directions. And Bautista, who left the airline in 2012 when Tan, who is known as the “Kapitan” among staff, sold 49 per cent to brewery empire San Miguel, along with management control, is grabbing them with both hands. He called in the press in Manila firstly to broadcast the not surprising news that PAL wants to raise its current three-star rating and become a five-star carrier and, secondly, that it now aims to beef up its international and regional destinations, with America a major target. Under the safety category downgrade the airline had been barred from replacing aircraft type or introducing new US destinations, a burden that cost it plenty over the past few years.