PAL says global survey ranks it one of world's top airlines

Philippine Airlines on Thursday said it has been ranked by United Kingdom-based aviation journal Airline Business as the 61st among the top 150 carriers in the world. PAL said no other Philippine carrier made it to the list. In a statement, PAL said the world's airlines were judged according to revenue passenger kilometers, the industry measurement for passenger traffic, with over 16 million RPKs flown in 2006. The survey's top 10 includes Air France-KLM group, Lufthasa Group, Fedex, AMR Corp., Japan Airlines Corp., United Airlines, Delta Airlines, British Airways, Continental Airlines and ANA Group. All airlines from across the industry spectrum were surveyed, including legacy, low-cost, regional, charter and pure-cargo carriers. PAL said its ranking placed it ahead of other Asian carriers like Garuda Indonesia (64th place) and Vietnam Airlines (78th), European rivals Scandinavian Airlines (85th) and CSA Czech Airlines (99th), and US regional carriers Hawaiian Airlines (82nd) and Continental Micronesia (134th). PAL said its average load factor of 76 percent last year was also noted as among the highest in the survey, matching or surpassing survey leaders British Airways (76 percent), Lufthansa (75 percent) and Japan Airlines (68.5 percent). In terms of revenue, PAL said the survey placed it 68th in the rankings, with $1.39 billion earned last year. Among Asia-Pacific carriers, PAL’s revenue performance landed it in 20th place. - GMANews.TV