PAL to offer early retirements and outsource non-core business units

Philippine Airlines plans to offer early retirements to reduce its workforce and outsource non-core parts of its business to cut costs, after reporting losses of USD301.4 million for FY2008-09 (Associated Press/ abs-cbnNEWS.com/Reuters, 27-Aug-09). The carrier stated a "substantial number" of its 8,000 staff would be offered early retirements. PAL also plans to realign capacity to focus on domestic services, cutting total capacity by 7% in FY2009-10.

Philippine Airlines: "Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. "We want to make PAL lean and mean so it will be agile and flexible enough to adapt to the new economic climate." Jaime Bautista, President. Source: Reuters, 27-Aug-09.