PAL to use bigger planes for service to New York

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) said its Manila-to-New York service would use newer and larger Boeing 777-300ERs starting Oct. 26 this year to increase capacity in this route.

In a statement on Friday, PAL said the Boeing planes would replace the Airbus A340s currently being used in flights between Manila and New York. The B777s have 370 seats, including 42 business-class seats, while the A340 has 254 seats.

“Using the B777 to the US mainland enables us to achieve our goal of operating our long-haul flights efficiently and economically. With this shift, passengers on the route will experience PAL’s trademark Filipino service in the comfort of the modern B777,” PAL president Jaime Bautista said in the statement.

At present, PAL uses B777s for its San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Toronto operations as well as select regional and international routes.

The flag carrier is taking delivery of two additional units, slated to arrive in October and December 2016, respectively.

Bautista said in a previous interview that PAL could also launch a so-called Polar Route Operation for flights between Manila and New York.

This would cut flying time by about two hours, but would depend on the passenger load. Bautista said the carrier could achieve the required load by 2016. He said PAL was still in the process of obtaining approvals from regulators, including the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines and the US Federal Aviation Administration.

The carrier, controlled by tycoon Lucio Tan, had credited its international business in helping bolster its bottom-line in the first half of 2015.

In a previous regulatory filing, the carrier’s listed operator PAL Holdings Inc. said net income from January to June 2015 hit P5.76 billion compared to P550.5 million in the same period last year. Revenues, it said, were up 14.3 percent to P55.96 billion.

Passenger revenues, which accounted for 84 percent of revenues, rose 15 percent to P47.17 billion, PAL Holdings said in the filing.