PAL marks 60th year

Philippine Airlines celebrates its 60th year today (March 16) by commemorating its storied past while charting a course for the future.

The PAL family will mark the milestone with simple but meaningful activities. Masses will be held at the airline’s various stations and facilities throughout the country and overseas.

Tonight (March 16), PAL will also host an anniversary reception at the Philippine International Convention Center to be attended by PAL staff and about 2,000 guests from government, the media, and the aviation, travel and business communities.

National leaders led by Vice President Teofisto T. Guingona and several Cabinet secretaries have confirmed their attendance.

PAL chairman and CEO Lucio Tan will deliver the keynote address.

During the occasion, the airline will pay tribute to some of its longest-serving employees as well as customers and partners in the industry.

PAL will have one eye on the past and another on the future as it turns 60 years old. This dual outlook is aptly captured in the anniversary theme, “PAL@ 60: Beyond A Proud Legacy.”

Since its founding as Asia’s first airline 60 years ago, PAL has been inextricably linked with the Filipino nation as the flag carrier, major air transport utility and partner in nation-building.

The airline is bidding to replicate its past success in the more demanding, technology-oriented milieu of the future.

Today’s anniversary is doubly significant because it marks PAL’s second year of operating under a rehabilitation plan supervised by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Exactly two years ago, the airline submitted to the SEC an amended rehab plan that carried the backing of its creditors. The document has since served as the blueprint for PAL’s recovery.

The flag carrier has turned in better-than-expected results in each of the last two years, putting it on track to graduate from rehabilitation much sooner than the 10 years contemplated by the plan.

PAL posted a modest profit of P46 million in fiscal year 1999-2000. It expects to increase this surplus more than ten-fold to P500 million when the current 2000-2001 fiscal year ends on March 31.