PAL plans to employ laid-off RI pilots
PAL plans to employ laid-off RI pilots
MANILA, Philippines (AP): Financially embattled Philippine
Airlines (PAL) is planning to hire laid-off Indonesian pilots to
replace Filipino pilots who went on strike and brought the
airline close to collapse, an official said yesterday.
PAL has sent officials to Jakarta to screen hundreds of pilots
laid off by at least four Indonesian carriers hurt by the
rupiah's sharp fall, senior vice president Avelino Zapanta said.
The Indonesian carriers, which together laid off more than
1,000 pilots, include national airline Garuda Indonesia and
Sempati Air. The latter closed June 1 because of huge financial
losses.
Zapanta said PAL currently has 83 pilots, including some union
members who have returned to work, but needs a total of 200 to
handle its scaled down operations following the 18-day pilots'
strike.
He said Indonesian pilots fly the same types of aircraft used
by PAL, which would allow the airline to save on training costs
and time.
The 625-member pilots' union went on strike June 5 to protest
an airline plan to retire certain pilots who have reached 20
years of service or flown 20,000 hours, regardless of age.
The plan put 225 pilots in danger of forced retirement, the
union says.
On Friday, PAL flight attendants and ground personnel
threatened to join the work stoppage, which has pushed Asia's
oldest airline to the brink of closure.
The ground workers' union filed a strike notice with the labor
department accusing PAL of union busting and harassment. The
flight attendants' union said it also plans a strike vote.
PAL chairman and business magnate Lucio Tan urged the two
unions not to strike and pledged not to pursue sanctions against
them if they agree to suspend the terms of existing collective
bargaining agreements for five years. Both unions refused.
PAL filed a rehabilitation plan Friday with Manila's
Securities and Exchange Commission, saying it is unable to meet
payments on its loans, estimated at US$ 2 billion, because of
drastically reduced cash flow.
The pilots' strike has cost the company more than 2 billion
pesos ($50 million) in lost revenue, PAL says.
"PAL has sufficient assets to cover obligations but we want to
prevent creditors from panicking and starting to haul away our
assets," Zapanta said, adding the airline will pursue an orderly
settlement of obligations.
As part of its rehabilitation plan, the airline says it will
lay off 40 percent of its 13,000-member work force, dispose of 40
of its 54 planes, suspend more than two-thirds of its routes and
sell some subsidiaries.
It said Thursday it will decide in three months whether it
will shut down after seeing the results of the rehabilitation
plan.
PAL says it lost 8 billion pesos ($202 million) in the fiscal
year that ended March 31 - the biggest loss in its 57-year
history.