PAL expands int‘l, domestic routes for yuletide rush

MANILA, Philippines - National flag carrier Philippine Airlines Inc. (PAL) is expanding its international routes to the US, Middle East, and Japan as well as its domestic network to accommodate more Filipinos living and working abroad returning to the country during the Christmas holidays.

PAL said in a statement that it is adding three weekly flights bringing to 10 the number of weekly flights to San Francisco starting Dec. 12 while maintaining 11 weekly flights to Los Angeles. It is also set to mount flights to New York via Vancouver starting March 15.

Likewise, PAL is set to mount daily flights to Honolulu from four weekly flights starting Dec. 11 using the Airbus A330-300 instead of A340-300. It currently flies daily to Guam.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (US-FAA) has upgraded the aviation safety rating of the Philippines back to Category 1 last April allowing Philippine carriers to mount additional flights to the US. The country’s rating was downgraded to Category 2 in 2008 due to the significant safety concerns raised by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

PAL is also augmenting its service to four major routes in the Middle East where there are over two million Filipinos most of whom are expected to return to the Philippines this month.

The airline is now flying daily to Dubai and Abu Dhabi and would fly five times a week to Dammam starting Dec. 9 and five times a week to Riyadh starting Dec. 15.

PAL is expanding its Cebu hub by flying four times a week to Osaka starting Dec. 19 and three times a week to Nagoya starting Dec. 20. The additional flights would augment its twice-daily flights to Narita.

The national flag carrier is set to restore its twice-daily flights to Haneda where it currently flies 11 times a week from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Likewise the airline has also started upgraded its service for the Manila-Fukuoka route, Manila-Nagoya route, Manila-Narita route using larger aircraft.

In the domestic front, PAL is beefing up its flights to several popular tourist routes to serve brisk holiday demand. These include flights to Bacolod, Basco, Tagbilaran, Busuanga, Caticlan, Laoag, Puerto Princesa, Butuan and Naga.