PAL gains Europe access with KLM code-share deal

Philippine Airlines and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines have reached agreement providing for code-shared services between Amsterdam and Manila, with KLM as the operating carrier.

The agreement, which took effect March 30, 2003, gives PAL a foothold in Europe for the first time since June 1998, when financial and operational difficulties forced the Philippine flag carrier to drop its routes to the continent.

The service will operate five times a week, with departures from Amsterdam every Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 7:45 p.m. Arrival in Manila is 6:15 p.m. the following day.

The return flight to Amsterdam departs Manila every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 7:40 p.m. and arrives in the Dutch capital at 7 a.m. the next day.

PAL will append the codes PR 787 and PR 788 to the Amsterdam-Manila and vice-versa flights, respectively. It will market and sell these flights as joint PAL-KLM services.

All flights are operated using the Dutch carrier’s Boeing 747-400 aircraft, configured in a bi-class layout.

Members of Mabuhay Miles, PAL’s frequent flyer program, earn mileage credit points when taking these code-shared flights.

Mabuhay Miles Elite and Premier Elite members also enjoy access to the executive lounge at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 as well as KLM’s Business Class Lounge at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

The code-share pact facilitates connections for PAL customers onto other KLM flights at Schipol.

PAL and KLM share a long history of partnership. In April 1969, the two carriers entered into a joint service, most visibly symbolized by a DC-8 aircraft painted in PAL’s livery on one side and KLM’s on the other.

As with the present deal, that joint service also marked PAL’s return to Europe after a long absence, though the Philippine carrier was the operating airline then.

KLM, Europe’s fourth largest airline, is PAL’s ninth international code-share partner after Cathay Pacific Airways, Egypt Air, Emirates, Garuda Indonesia, Gulf Air, Malaysia Arilines, Qatar Airways and Vietnam Airlines.