Manila: National air carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) had to cancel at least five flights on Saturday after several Airbus A320 pilots resigned for jobs abroad.
Among the flights cancelled was one to Hong Kong, and the others to domestic destinations.
Brain drain - the decamping of professionals, including teachers and nurses, for better jobs abroad - has long plagued the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.
About 10 per cent of the population of 94 million works abroad, sending home the money that provides the bloodline for the economy.
PAL spokesman Jonathan Gesmundo went on TV and radio stations to apologise to the public for the cancellations, which he said were caused by the sudden departure of nearly a dozen pilots for better-paying jobs overseas.
He said the pilots did not inform the management, but that this was not a group action.
"In the past few days, pilots had not been reporting for duty. This has caused problems for us," Gesmundo said.
PAL said in a statement it will be filing appropriate charges against the pilots "who chose not to report for work immediately after submitting resignation letters. Most of the pilots still owe PAL the cost of their aviation school training, which run into millions of pesos per pilot."
"The indiscriminate resignation of the A320 pilots for flying jobs whose salaries PAL is unable to match, is in violation of their contracts with PAL as well as with pertinent government regulations that require resigning pilots to give PAL six months to train their replacements," it said.
Gesmundo said the airline was adjusting its schedule and will probably bring in bigger aircraft to accommodate the stranded passengers.
The indebted flag carrier has said it would lay off some of its 8,000-strong work force because of financial losses in the third straight year.
