Philippine Airlines posted profits of $11.5
million for the first nine months of its 2007-08 fiscal year
despite loss of $11.3 million for its fiscal third quarter.
The loss, which contrasted with the net
income of $79.5 million in the same period in 2006, was due
primarily to the absence this year of some major one-time gains
that boosted the airline’s revenues the previous year.
However, based on operating income alone,
PAL’s financial performance actually improved in both the
quarterly and nine-month periods.
The flag carrier earned $15.3 million in
operating income in October-to-December 2007 – a period
corresponding to the third quarter of PAL’s fiscal year that
starts in April. This was a 6 percent increase over the $13.2
million operating income in same quarter in 2006.
On a year-to-date basis, PAL performed even
better, with the nine-month operating income of $86.7 million in
2007 surpassing the $51.9 million earned in 2006 by over 67
percent.
Revenues for the 2007 quarter amounted to
$371.8 million – marginally lower than the same-quarter figure
of $391.4 million in 2006.
But expenses, led by higher fuel, manpower
and lease costs, increased by 23 percent from $312 million to
$383 million. Fuel expense alone rose to $121.5 million for the
quarter as a result of the increase in the average oil price
from $79.19 per barrel in 2006 to $92.83 per barrel in 2007.
Overall, the third-quarter loss, while a
letdown from last year’s profit, did little to dampen PAL’s
strong performance for the first nine months.
For April to December 2007, PAL posted
revenues of $1.1 billion, lifted by higher net yields per
Revenue Passenger Kilometer – 6.2 percent more than the figure
for same period in 2006.
Expenses, which increased by 15 percent to
$944.7 million, were again swelled by greater fuel, maintenance
and servicing costs.
The resulting net income of $11.5 million,
while lower than the extraordinary-gains-spiked profit of $90.4
million in 2006, now primes PAL for an expected full-year profit
by March 31, 2008.
