The Philippines: The Aboitiz Transport System Corporation (ATSC) has revealed plans to purchase more ferries to meed domestic transport plans.
Stephen Paradies, the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV), said that the company would be replacing existing ferries as they were getting old.
ATSC currently has a fleet of eight passenger and freight vessels, three box ships and six fast craft. ATSC is the operator of the SuperFerry, SuperCat and Cebu Ferries businesses.
Mr Paradies said that sales had initially dropped after the "sea mishap" of the 'Superferry 9'.
The vessel sank on September 6, 2009, with 970 passengers and crewmembers on board. Ten people were killed.
Following the incident, Mr Paradies said that the company suffered a US$4.3 million loss when the fleet was temporarily suspended.
"But after a month, we were glad that passengers came back and operations resumed," he said.
He added that airlines now dominated the passenger transport market but that would not stop the company from working to compete.
