Philippine Airlines borrowed $38 million from one of the largest commercial banks in Taiwan to partly finance the purchase of a new aircraft.
The airline, owned by tycoon Lucio Tan, signed a syndicated term loan with Cathay United Bank Co. Ltd. PAL received its sixth Airbus A321 on Saturday.
The A321 is the largest member of the best-selling A320 Family, which has the lowest seat mile costs of any single aisle aircraft.
As with other members of the A320 Family, the aircraft offers a wider cabin than competing single aisle products, with wider seats, a wider aisle and more personal space.
The list price of A321 is $114.9 million.
The airline will operate its new A321s primarily on international routes across the Asia, as well as on selected domestic flights.
PAL earlier signed a deal with Airbus to acquire six A350-900 jets worth $1.8 billion, with an option to buy six others to support its long-haul operations.
PAL plans to deploy the A350 XWB (extra wide body), which seats more than 300, on new routes to North America and Europe. The first A350 is scheduled to be delivered in 2018.
Its parent firm, PAL Holdings Inc., posted a comprehensive net income of P4.62 billion in the January-to-June period from P5.94 billion in the same period last year.
PAL Holdings in the second quarter reported a total comprehensive income of P1.92 billion, down 11 percent from P2.16 billion last year.
Revenues in the six-month period reached P57.57 billion, up 2.3 percent from last year’s P56.28 billion. Total earnings in the second quarter amounted to P28.45 billion from P28.30 billion last year.
PAL Holdings atrributed the increase mainly to the depreciation of the peso, which averaged at P47.19 per $1 in the first half from P44.55 year-on-year.
