PAL resumes flights to Abu Dhabi

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines said it would restart recently suspended flights to Abu Dhabi due to high demand.

In a statement, PAL said its Manila to Abu Dhabi service would resume its thrice weekly service on Oct. 31, 2017.

The company suspended the route on July 8, worried about overcapacity in the region.

PAL president Jaime Bautista said in a previous interview that competition in the Middle East remained stiff, hurting PAL’s profitability.

“There is still overcapacity in the market,” Bautista had said.

PAL said it continued to serve Dammam (five times a week), Dubai (daily), Jeddah (thrice a week), Kuwait (four times a week) and daily Riyadh flights, while noting it would upgrade services.

“By the end of the year, the flag carrier would provide a bi-class service (business and economy) across all its Middle East routes providing passengers on board amenities, free baggage allowance, comfort, convenience and in-flight entertainment,” PAL noted in its statement.

The flag carrier is reconfiguring some of its Airbus A330 planes.

Specifically, the plan covers about half of its A330 fleet of 15 planes. The eight planes were previously 414-seater all-economy aircraft.

The reconfiguration cut the number of seats by about 25 percent to 309 seats with the addition of more profitable business class (18 seats) and premium economy (24 seats).