DOHA: Philippine Airlines is working toward developing sustainable fuel for its airline fleet, as the International Air Transport Association aims to achieve net zero by 2050, said Stanley Ng, president of Philippine Airlines.
“We really support the zero-emission initiative of the group. We’re also tracking our carbon emissions. And we’re constantly trying to reduce that. We’re also looking for sustainable aviation fuel as well but right now, we still don’t have that in place. However, the team is already working on that,” Ng said during an exclusive interview with Arab News on the sidelines of the IATA Annual General Meeting in Doha.
The comments from Ng came at a time when IATA launched its CO2 Connect, an online tool which provides the most accurate carbon dioxide emission calculations for any given commercial passenger flight.
Ng also revealed that the increase in fuel prices is negatively impacting the finance of the airlines.
“It’s the biggest challenge right now. We have to fly more frequencies because of the demand. But also it’s eating up the margin as well. So our fuel costs are like 30 to 40 percent,” he said.
Ng, however, made it clear that the airline is not passing this burden to travelers in the form of ticket price hikes, instead, the carrier is charging a little amount as a fuel surcharge to stay afloat.
He added that the aviation sector is strongly rebounding after the pandemic. He noted that domestic travel is almost equal to the pre-pandemic level, while international travel currently stands at 60 percent of the volume in 2019.
Ng further added that strong passenger volumes can be achieved soon when countries like China open up.
“For our long-haul flights, we’re about 80 percent pre-pandemic level already based on the capacity that we’re put into. But it’s really the regional routes that are set actually. We’re still waiting for China to open up. And then we will be almost back to our pre-pandemic capacity,” he said.