Philippine Airlines confirmed today, at the Paris Air Show, an order for nine Airbus A350-1000 — for which it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding last month. The new aircraft will join the two A350-900 that already fly for the Philippine’s flag carrier.
The agreement, followed by a press conference, was signed by Philippine Airlines’ President and Chief Operating Officer (COO), Captain Stanley K. Ng, the President and COO of PAL Holdings — which owns the airline — Lucio C. Tan III, Christian Scherer, Airbus’ Chief Commercial Officer and Head of International, and Airbus’ President for Asia-Pacific, Anand Stanley.
«We selected the A350-1000 to give PAL the power to match capacity closely to predicted demand on both the very longest routes to the North American East Coast but also on our prime trunk routes to the West Coast and potentially to Europe as well», stated Captain Ng in a press release. «At the same time the aircraft will use significantly less fuel than older aircraft of a similar size, which also brings an important reduction in carbon emissions».
Lucio C. Tan III, President & Chief Operating Officer, PAL Holdings Inc. said: «These state-of-the-art aircraft will enable us to give them the convenience of nonstop flights on long range routes in a comfortable passenger cabin where our cabin crew can do what they do best – extend gracious service and world-class Filipino hospitality», stated Tan. «The A350-1000 is our ‘Mission Aircraft’ to connect the world and boost the Philippine economy and society».
The aircraft will be set up with 380 seats spread across three classes of service — Business, Premium Economy and Economy. Economy class will be in the A350’s new 10-abreast configuration, Captain Ng confirmed in the press conference.
Such A350 are expected to be delivered from the second half of 2025 through 2027, replacing Philippine Airlines’ fleet of nine Boeing 777-300ER.
The airline’s fleet is also composed of ten Airbus A330-300; a replacement for this would be announced in three to four years time, according to Captain Ng. Regarding the pair of A350-900, Tan said it would make sense to either bring more units of the type or phase them out. The Memorandum of Understanding in May had options for three additional A350-100, albeit there was no mention of it in the press conference.
Philippine Airlines has stayed out of the European market since the start of the war in Ukraine, when it dropped its flights between Manila and London/Heathrow. With the confirmed order, the airline is now «exploring options» for potential destinations, said Captain Ng.
Questioned about a hypothetical order for freighter A350s, Ng conceded that the airline management recently learned more about this version of the aircraft and was «amazed by it». However, he was cautious in declaring a firm interest. «The concept is quite new to Philippine Airlines», he said, as the company has not operated a full freighter aircraft in decades.
