Filipino food, beverage and packaging multinational San Miguel Corporation (SMC) is considering returning to the airline business, CAPA has reported.

According to company sources, SMC is looking at establishing its own carrier to ply domestic and international routes from Caticlan Airport near Boracay.

Operationally, SMC is already in talks with Boeing over its B737 MAX 7 offering, with pitches from each of Bombardier Aerospace and Embraer likely to focus on the C-Series and E190 respectively.

The aircraft would be used to allow the carrier to serve international routes of up to four or five hours from Caticlan - in East Asia especially - and which are out of reach for the A320.

However, the report indicates the Philippine government would have to study the proposed airline's operations, given the conflict of interest as SMC already operates Caticlan Airport.

SMC previously owned a 49% stake in Philippine Airlines (PR, Manila Ninoy Aquino International) until 2014 when Lucio Tan acquired it for USD1.1billion.