PAL reopens flights between Cebu & Osaka

Amid the global slowdown of travel, the country’s flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) re-opened its Cebu-Osaka-Cebu twice-a-week service indicating its confidence in Cebu as business and leisure destination of choice of Japanese.

“We are responding to the persistent demand by Cebu and Osaka [tourism stakeholders]. After careful review, we decided to finally re-open this access despite the new challenges being faced not only by the worldwide airline industry, but the entire global economy,” said PAL president and chief executive officer (CEO) Jaime Bautista, during the formal launch of Osaka-Cebu-Osaka flight Sunday at the Cebu Marco Polo Hotel.

The revival of Osaka-Cebu direct flight is part of PAL’s US$1.2 billion re-fleeting program that would utilize new Airbus 320, he said.

PAL stopped its Cebu-Osaka direct flight in 1998, as part of the effect of the 1997Asian financial crisis. This time, while the world is suffering from economic slowdown, brought about by the crash of the US economy, Bautista said he is confident that Cebu could still attract significant number of Japanese tourists, and businessmen.

“Cebu has a way of mesmerizing visitors,” he said.

Japanese tourists are the second largest foreign visitors to Cebu, and Central Visayas. In the last three months, arrivals of Japanese nationals to Cebu, went down due to the widespread effect of global economic meltdown, said Department of Tourism (DOT-7) regional director Patria Aurora Roa.

Just like the Korean arrivals that suffered a 10% decrease, Japanese arrivals are also experiencing a downturn, she said.

But with the resumption of PAL’s Cebu-Osaka service, the DOT vows to spend on bringing big tourist delegations from Japan to Cebu, such as divers and travel agents, in order for the Japanese to re-discover Cebu, which was once the Japanese’ top leisure destination in the pre-1997 years.

DOT is aiming to reach 400,000 Japanese arrivals this year, from 359,000 in 2007. Thus, budget allocation for marketing campaigns in Japan, is being beefed up by the Department, said DOT secretary Joseph Ace Durano.

Though the timing is not as good as expected, Bautista said PAL had been working for this direct flight revival a year before the formal launching. “Since the response was good amid the global slowdown, we decided to pursue the Osaka-Cebu re-opening,” he said.

Bautista said PAL is also bracing up for the more difficult year for the entire airline industry next year, as slowdown of travel interest from worldwide market will be more magnified. However, he said PAL is not as big as other regional carriers, and this projected challenge is already being taken care of.

In fact, he said the company has no plans to trim off the number of its regular employees, which now numbered 7,500. Significantly, because of Cebu’s upbeat growth, PAL is currently studying possibilities of opening more international direct flights. --- Ehda M. Dagooc