PAL names new president, COO

MANILA, Philippines (Update 1, Feb. 3, 2022) — Flag-carrier Philippine Airlines named a new president and COO, who will face the difficult task of shoring up the loss-making carrier to a sustained recovery after exiting bankruptcy protection.

In a statement on Monday, PAL announced the appointment of Stanley Ng, its senior vice president for airline operations, to the crucial positions. An Airbus A320 commander, Ng is the first pilot to assume the presidency of PAL since the early 1960s.

Ng will replace Gilbert Santa Maria, who is ending his stint as president and COO. Santa Maria’s departure came a few weeks after he led PAL’s restructuring, which was approved by a US bankruptcy court before the end of last year.

“The former President and COO will continue to make himself available to assist in the leadership transition over the next few weeks,” PAL said.

The revamp comes at a crucial and difficult time for PAL. After exiting the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, the carrier still needs to make sure it can recover from a pandemic-led slump and part of this goal is to raise more funds to bankroll its post-restructuring needs.

Ng started as a member of the flag carrier’s on-ground staff in 2003 before training at the PAL Aviation School.

He started flying in 2008 as a second ffficer and rose up the ranks until he was promoted to senior vice President in 2019 in charge of the airline’s pilots and cabin crew, as well as operational airport and engineering teams. — Ian Nicolas Cigaral

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article erroneously reported that Ng was appointed as PAL's new president and "CEO". Ng was appointed as president and "COO", not as CEO, and this article has been corrected. We apologize for the error.