Philippine Airlines has pledged 15 aircraft, replacement engines and frequent flyer miles as collateral to secure loans needed as part of its ongoing restructuring process, ch-aviation.com reported. This is according to a Sept. 17, 2021, notice of filings of additional restructuring support agreements (RSA) between Philippine Airlines and various counterparties with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York, where the airline is in voluntary chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings aimed at paring off USD2.1 billion of its USD6 billion in debts.
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Eric Teng was preparing to welcome his restaurants’ first dine-in customers in weeks on Wednesday when the Philippine government suddenly backtracked on its decision to ease virus curbs, Bloomberg News reported. “It’s unacceptable, but we have to live by these overnight declarations,” said Teng, who runs a group of restaurants including Mango Tree and Cocina Peruvia in Manila. “That’s a live-or-die statement for us.
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Philippine Airlines Inc. expects to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy before the end of the year, with a leaner fleet and fewer destinations as a recovery in travel demand isn’t likely in the next few years, President Gilbert Santa Maria said, Bloomberg News reported. Majority owned by billionaire Lucio Tan, the carrier filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York on Sept. 3 with a lender-supported plan to help it recover after the pandemic devastated global travel.
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The Philippine central bank held its key interest rate steady for a sixth straight meeting, with the bank’s chief warning that lingering lockdowns to stem the spread of Covid-19 are threatening the economy’s recovery, Bloomberg News reported. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas left the benchmark rate at 2% Thursday, as all 19 analysts in a Bloomberg survey predicted. “The reimposition of quarantine measures to arrest the recent wave of Covid-19 infections could pose a risk to the ongoing economic recovery,” Governor Benjamin Diokno said at a briefing in Manila.
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PAL Holdings on Wednesday addressed reports about a planned bankruptcy protection filing, saying it has "not approved any definite option," CNNPhilippines.com reported. In a disclosure to the local bourse, the operator of Philippine Airlines clarified a news report stating it eyes the filing by June 29, saying they are "not aware" of the date referred to.
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Philippine Airlines Inc.’s parent company posted a record loss last year, reflecting the “extraordinary” impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the carrier, Bloomberg News reported. PAL Holdings Inc. reported a 71.8 billion pesos ($1.48 billion) loss in calender 2020, compared to a 10.3 billion peso shortfall the year before, the company said in a stock exchange filing Thursday. In the first quarter of this year, its loss narrowed to 8.6 billion pesos from 9.4 billion pesos a year earlier.
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Philippine Airlines Inc. is in talks with plane lessors about reducing its fleet size and has told them it’s considering a chapter 11 filing in the U.S. to carry out a restructuring, Bloomberg News reported. The airline could return at least two Airbus SE A350s to lessors and four of the 10 Boeing Co. 777s in its fleet. Two A350s are in the process of being taken back by aircraft lessors and will be redeployed to other carriers. Prior to the negotiations, Philippine Airlines had six A350s. One lessor reached an agreement with the airline for it to keep a 777 and an A330.
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Airline maintenance provider Lufthansa Technik Philippines (LTP) will lay off 300 employees in April due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the airline industry that forced some of its clients into bankruptcy, The Star reported. "This decision comes after careful study and consideration of the business situation as a result of the pandemic, its effects on the aviation industry," LTP president and CEO Elmar Lutter said in a letter to employees dated Feb. 11.
The Philippine Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said that the government is seeking a new 540 billion-peso ($11.2 billion) loan from the central bank to aid in pandemic relief measures, Bloomberg News reported. The request for a new loan was transmitted to the central bank after the government repaid its previous debt of the same amount due on Tuesday, de Leon said. This is the third time that the government has requested support from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. The monetary authority extended advances of 300 billion pesos in March and 540 billion pesos in October.
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Philippine authorities are probing the financial transactions of a law office and a tour operator for possible connections to Wirecard, the collapsed German payments firm, and its former chief operating officer Jan Marsalek, a government official said, the Financial Times reported.