When the country’s national flag
carrier Philippine Airlines is mentioned, those with even the smallest business
knowledge would automatically connect the company to Lucio Tan, one of the wealthiest
men in the Philippines. While his name is the most prominent in the entire
organization due to his position as chairman and CEO, he also has members of
his family in key positions. That is why following the sudden retirement of PAL’s
current president and chief operating officer (COO), Tan’s daughter now finds
herself in position to assume a greater degree of leadership in the company her
father led for years.
Inquirer.net reports that Vivienne Tan, daughter of Philippine
Airlines boss Lucio Tan, is being appointed as officer-in-charge of the flag
carrier. This comes at the heels of COO Jaime Bautista announcing that he was
retiring from the company in order to spend more time with his family. The
62-year-old Bautista had submitted his resignation letter directly to the elder
Tan, who has accepted it. Vivienne Tan’s shuffle as PAL OIC was revealed to Inquirer.net via officials in the
organization, as the national airline has yet to release any official statement
pertaining to the Bautista’s departure.
Bautista had actually already
gone into semi-retirement years ago. But in 2014, following Tan’s gaining full
control of the airline by reacquiring the stake of the San Miguel group he
called Bautista back into active duty as chief operating officer. PAL insiders
intimate that Bautista has already been planning to take his final bow from the
company in order to spend more time as a family man. Following his submission
of resignation to his boss, Bautista then went to attend the Paris Air Show in
Europe, where Inquirer.net was able
to get in touch with him for comments on the course of events within PAL.
Vivienne Tan has certainly got
some executive savvy of her own that her father Lucio Tan would entrust her
with the responsibilities of the outgoing Jaime Bautista. In early June, she
brokered a collective bargaining agreement with the PAL Employees Association
(Palea) labor union that is good for five years. This step ensures that the
Palea-affiliated employees, comprising 11% of the 6,829 strong airline
workforce will stand with the company even as it continues its rebranding
initiative and updating its air fleet. Thus far, PAL has been adding new state-of-the-art
airliners to its fleet, with single aisles and wide bodies.
The national flag carrier’s
efforts have not gone unnoticed. In 2018 the London airline survey firm Skytrax
named Philippine Airlines the second most-improved global airline. Most
recently, AirlineRatings.com from Australia has also voted for PAL as the world’s
most improved airline for the year 3019.
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