Philippine Airlines (PAL) has finalised a purchase agreement with Airbus for nine A350-1000 long-haul aircraft.
The A350-1000s will be deployed on nonstop services from PAL’s Manila hub to North America, including to the East Coast of the United States and Canada.
The new aircraft will join two A350-900s already in service at the airline.
PAL’s A350-1000 fleet will be able to accommodate 380 passengers in a three-class layout, including business class, premium economy and economy class.
Unlike PAL’s A350-900s, the new A350-1000s will have ten seats per row in economy across a 3-4-3 configuration.
The previous A350-900 fleet was more comfortable in the back. It featured a 3-3-3 layout.
“This order will see PAL operating one of the youngest and most modern widebody fleets in Asia. 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.
“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,” commented Capt. Ng, president and chief operating officer of PAL.
“In the larger widebody category, the A350-1000 has set a standard of its own, with the lowest operating costs and emissions for intercontinental service. We thank Philippine Airlines for its ongoing confidence in Airbus and look forward to working with the airline as the A350 becomes the flagship of its widebody fleet,” said Christian Scherer, Airbus chief commercial officer.
PAL currently operates various Airbus types on its full-service network. In addition to the A350 on long-haul intercontinental routes, PAL flies A330-300s on services to the Middle East, Australia and various points in Asia.
The Philippine flag carrier also has a fleet of Boeing 777-300ER widebody aircraft
PAL also operates a fleet of A320 and A321 single aisle aircraft on its extensive domestic and regional network out of hubs in Manila and Cebu.