Philippine Airlines takes inaugural flight to New York City today
MANILA, Philippines - March 15, 2015 is a milestone date for flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) as it marks the company’s 74th founding anniversary and signals the start of PAL’s four- times-weekly service to New York City.
“We are prioritizing our US network expansion in answer to the clamor of the huge Filipino community in the US East Coast. We are confident we will be able to meet the expectations of our passengers in New York with PAL's brand of quality service that is distinctively Filipino,” said PAL president Jaime J. Bautista.
The new service will operate between Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport and New York’s John F. Kennedy International (JFK) Airport. PAL’s flagship airplane – the Boeing 777-300ER – will be utilized for the inaugural journey to the Big Apple. The aircraft, with its award-winning passenger experience, delivers the highest reliability and lowest operating cost-per-seat of any aircraft flying today.
New York marks the fifth US city in PAL’s network, following Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu and Guam.
PAL’s arrival has been keenly anticipated by the huge Filipino-American communities along the US eastern seaboard. About half a million ethnic Filipinos reside on the East Coast, with more than 253,000 in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area, 90,000 in Virginia, 75,000 in Washington, DC and environs, and 31,000 in the Philadelphia metro area. Overall, Filipinos on the East Coast account for 15 percent of the estimated 3.4-million-strong Filipino population in the US, comprising a natural base market for PAL.
The robust business sector in New York City, the world’s financial capital, as well as the sizeable government and diplomatic community attached to the United Nations, which is also based in the city, provide other key traffic streams.
The choice of JFK International, one of the busiest airports in the US, as PAL’s gateway to New York, is a major advantage for the new service. Located in the borough of Queens, the airport is a mere 15 miles from midtown Manhattan, nerve center of New York.
