Tan’s net worth now stands at $2.9 billion, according to Forbes, moving him up from eighth place in 2025 and seventh in 2024.
Philippine Airlines last month agreed to acquire as many as 34 new aircraft from Boeing and Airbus, with their combined estimated list price exceeding $12 billion.
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Lucio Tan, chairman of Philippine Airlines, attends a press conference in Manila on August 28, 2012. Photo by AFP |
Deliveries of the 20 Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners and 14 Airbus A350-1000 long-haul jets are scheduled to begin in 2031.
“The investment manifests our confidence in the future of Philippine Airlines and the continued growth of air travel,” his grandson Lucio Tan III, president of PAL Holdings Inc., the airline’s parent company, said in a statement.
The aircraft order came after the airline raised $300 million through the sale of five-year bonds earlier in the month.
The 85-year-old carrier is accelerating fleet modernization and expansion as earnings recover. Net profit rose 37% to 9.6 billion pesos (US$160 million) in 2025, while revenue increased 3.2% to 184 billion pesos.
It has added or expanded services to Chicago, Vancouver, Toronto, New York, Japan, Australia and the Pacific. It also plans to resume Manila–Dubai flights in October.
The Philippines recorded 3.16 million inbound visitors in the first half of 2026, up 5.4% year on year, driven by more relaxed visa entry requirements, according to Business Mirror.
The top 12 source markets of visitors for the Philippines all recorded increases, except for South Korea, with long-haul markets like Germany even showing monthly increases year-on-year, despite the ongoing tensions in the Middle East.