Philippine Airlines said it settled P12.7 billion  COVID-related refund requests from its passengers affected by the travel restrictions. 

“We are doing all we can to cope with the massive deluge of refund requests that we received after the global pandemic forced us to cancel more than 60,000 PAL flights since March 2020, affecting over 1.3 million passengers,” the Lucio Tan-led airline said. 

“The loss of revenues deprived us of liquidity to make prompt refund payments, even as lockdown restrictions posed serious staffing and logistical limitations,” it added. 

PAL, however said it has  progressively stepped up its processing capabilities to address the system backlogs.  

“We have so far refunded about 80 percent of the more than $300 million (PHP15.9 billion) COVID-related refund requests,” PAL said. 

“We recognize that this has taken some time, and we greatly appreciate your understanding as we continue to resolve these challenges over the coming months,” it added.

PAL has now restored nearly 15 percent of its regular domestic and global network, and intends to ramp up to more flights and more routes in line with an expected easing of travel and quarantine restrictions.  

“We assure our customers of Philippine Airlines’ commitment to fulfill all refund obligations, and we sincerely apologize for the long processing time many of you have experienced,” PAL said.