National carrier Philippine Airlines said Thursday it will cut its work force by offering early retirement as a cost-cutting measure after suffering more than $301 million in losses.

“We want to make PAL lean and mean so it will be agile and flexible enough to adapt to the new economic climate,” company president Jaime J. Bautista said in a statement.

He said the airline industry has been one of the hardest hit by the global recession.

The statement said the company will take “decisive steps” to restructure after last month reporting losses of $301.4 million for its fiscal year ended March 2009. It had net profit of $30.6 million in the previous year.

The airline did not specify how many of its 8,000-plus employees would be offered early retirement.

The company’s revenue increased to $1.634 billion in the last fiscal year from $1.504 billion in the previous year due to a 17 percent increase in passengers, but it was overwhelmed by increased maintenance costs and record-high fuel prices that raised expenses to $1.9 billion. Fuel accounts for 44 percent of the airline’s operating costs.