Top job switch at Philippine Airlines

The top job at Philippine Airlines (PAL) changed hands last week after the carrier announced the retirement of long-serving president and COO Jaime Bautista and installed Vivienne Tan, daughter of the company's billionaire owner Lucio Tan, as officer in charge.

While the airline made only a routine announcement of Bautista’s departure, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family, local media dubbed the move a surprise, coming on the day PAL took the Skytrax Award for Most Improved Airline of 2019.

The announcement also came only weeks after the annual shareholders meeting of PAL Holdings, the listed holding company of the airline, at which Bautista was reappointed as both president and director while Vivienne Tan was named treasurer.

Press reports noted Bautista, who worked at PAL for 26 years, half of them as president and COO, was largely credited for turning the airline round from a losing company into a formidable force in Philippine aviation.

Other sources claimed Bautista fell victim to a long-planned consolidation of power and control by Lucio Tan’s family by his first wife. Now 83, the billionaire was named recently by Forbes magazine as the fourth richest man in the Philippines.

www.philippineairlines.com

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