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Philippine Airlines is reopening its aviation school to build up its pilot roster in response to growing travel demand
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PAL will partner with Australian pilot training institute Airways Aviation, which has a presence in Australia, the Middle East, Europe, India, and Africa
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The flag carrier shut down its six-decades-old aviation school in June 2020 due to the COVID pandemic
Philippine Airlines (PAL) is reopening its aviation school after five years to build up its pilot roster in response to growing travel demand.
PAL will partner with Australian pilot training institute Airways Aviation, which has a presence in Australia, the Middle East, Europe, India, and Africa.
The flag carrier shut down its six-decades-old aviation school in June 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. At that time, PAL’s aviation school had already produced some 1,200 pilots.
Currently the airline has 789 pilots and 2,373 cabin crew members.
“We want to be assured of a steady pipeline of pilots who will meet our manpower needs in line with our expansion plans in the future,” said PAL president Stanley Ng.
In the signing ceremony held Thursday, this week, Ng said they want to train more pilots who will service their route expansion.
The Lucio Tan-owned airline started the selection process for the first batch of 20 students. Those who pass will undergo 18 months of training at Airways Aviation’s facility in Australia, beginning end-July.
The program costs about P4.5 million, inclusive of meals and lodging. In support of aspiring women pilots, PAL pledged P10 million to the PAL Foundation to provide scholarships to four female trainees.
“Today, we proudly reopened the school,” PAL general counsel Carlos Luis Fernandez said. “We would need a new generation of high-performing aviation professionals trained in-house to the most rigorous of standards.”
This year, Ng said they are aiming to grow passenger volume by 10 to 20 percent, translating to a total passenger volume of 17.16 million to 18.72 million. This is beyond the 16.76 million the airline flew in 2019 or prior to the pandemic.
In 2024, PAL flew 15.6 million passengers, up six percent from its volume in 2023.
