PAL to “continue to cooperate” with gov’t to settle issue of unpaid navigational charges

Philippine Airlines chairman Lucio Tan (L) and Airbus CEO Fabrice Bregier (R) after signing a purchase agreement for six Airbus A350-900 aircraft at the Singapore Airshow at the Changi exhibition center in Singapore on February 17, 2016./AFP / Roslan Rahman/

(Eagle News) — Philippine Airlines on Thursday said it would “continue to cooperate with any and all agencies to resolve” issues in relation to what the government said were its unpaid navigational charges.

In a statement, PAL said  the “issue…involves complex legal issues which PAL has been trying to thresh out with the (Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines) for years.”

PAL said it was CAAP which, in August 2016, “sent letters to the company demanding payment of unpaid navigational charges in the amount of P6.63 billion.”

“For the past months, both CAAP and PAL have been working together to validate these claims in their mutual and collaborative effort to settle this obligation,” the company said.

According to PAL, when “the same legal issues were the subject of a court case between PAL and the (Manila International Airport Authority) years back” and “the court ruled in favor of PAL,” the company “opted to settle amicably with the MIAA as a manifestation of its full support of the government.”

It said in the case of CAAP,  which “created an inter-agency panel of negotiators for the proposed settlement via CAAP Authority Order 149-17,” PAL “formally submitted its offer to (the Authority) which is more than the amount covered by the CAAP supporting invoices received by PAL.”

“To date however, PAL has not received any official response from CAAP on its offer,” the airline said.

 

“We look forward to meeting the negotiating panel and we are ready to submit a compromise agreement to settle this issue once and for all,”  PAL added.