Philippine Airlines Closes Doors

Philippine Airlines, the oldest air carrier in Asia, closed its doors Wednesday after last-minute negotiations failed to persuade its largest union to accept a recovery plan. The closure immediately stripped Los Angeles International Airport of its only nonstop service to Manila, the Philippine capital.

The last of the 57-year-old carrier’s once-a-day flights from LAX was scheduled to depart Los Angeles at 11 p.m. Wednesday, airport spokesman Nancy Castles said.

Last year the airline accommodated about 300,000 passengers at LAX, accounting for roughly one-half of 1% of the airport’s total volume, Castles said. The carrier also handled about one-third of 1% of the airport’s cargo volume, ferrying about 6,200 tons of freight and mail.

At least seven airlines, including United and Northwest, offer one-stop, connecting service from Los Angeles to Manila, Castles said.

California’s Filipino population is estimated at about 1 million.

PAL had said it would shut down unless workers accepted the rescue plan, which it said was a prerequisite for recovering from a series of crippling strikes and Asia’s currency crisis.

PAL is the largest Philippine company to fail since Asia’s currency crisis, which hit just as the airline was launching a $4-billion expansion and re-fleeting plan.

The closure of PAL leaves many areas of the 7,000-island Philippine archipelago without air service. Two smaller carriers were grounded last week over safety concerns and financial problems.

“It’s sad that a national symbol, an institution, is going under. But we have to run these symbols substantially well, because if not, they will not last long,” government spokesman Jerry Barican said.