Philippine Airlines Says to Shed 117 Jobs in Non-Core Services

Philippine Airlines Inc (PAL) said on Thursday it is laying off 117 domestic ground crew, or about 2 percent of its total staff strength, in November to focus on its core operations for sustaining profitability.

"PAL will disengage from non-core services such as our ground-handling activities in domestic stations which can be turned over to qualified third-party service providers," the carrier said in a statement.

The airline, owned by PAL Holdings Inc which is controlled by the Philippines' fourth-richest man, Lucio Tan, had 2,386 ground employees in the Philippines and 2,512 flight crew as of end-2014. It flies to 35 foreign cities and 29 domestic points.

The statement said severance benefits will be paid to the affected employees but did not quantify the costs or savings for the airline from the move.

PAL Holdings' first-half net income jumped more than 10 times to 5.86 billion pesos (US$125.51 million) from a year earlier on strong passenger revenues. It returned to profitability in 2014, snapping a three-year losing streak amid labour unrest, mounting expenses, a weak peso and heightened competition.

PAL said last month it plans to acquire or lease eight wide body, twin-engine Airbus A350 XWB or Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft for its long-haul operations.