Philippine Airlines (PR, Manila Ninoy Aquino International) President and Chief Operating Officer Jaime Bautista says his airline is considering converting some of its outstanding A321neo orders into Long Range variants.
The Filipino carrier, which has thirty of the type on firm order from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac), may use the type to expand its Australian market presence Bautista told local media last week.
The A321neo LR is being touted as a replacement for the B757-200 which the Filipino carrier had planned to lease from Boeing Capital Corporation for use on non-stop flights to Perth International and Brisbane International last year. The move, however, was abandoned just prior to Lucio Tan's buyout of San Miguel Corp's minority shareholding in PAL in September last year.
Currently, PAL serves Brisbane via Darwin using A320-200s while Melbourne Tullamarine and Sydney Kingsford Smith are served direct from Manila Ninoy Aquino International using A330-300 aircraft.
