PAL ties up with Hawaii airline in bid to expand to US West Coast

MANILA, Philippines—Philippine Airlines (PAL) has opened Manila to Seattle flights via Honolulu as the flag carrier aims to generate revenues by expanding lucrative operations to the United States West Coast.

PAL operates regular flights to Honolulu while the Honolulu to Seattle leg will be operated by Hawaiian Airlines through an interline partnership.

PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said this marked the beginning of a broader partnership by PAL with Hawaiian Airlines.

From the Honolulu hub, the carriers are planning flights to Las Vegas, Phoenix and Portland, she said.

This comes as the flag carrier rationalizes its US operations under a business recovery plan, following the filing of Chapter 11 creditor protection proceedings last Sept. 3.

PAL earlier underscored the importance of US West Coast destinations like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle in its new business plan, adding that it would rely on codeshare and interline agreements to support the strategy.

PAL also plans to cancel some ultra long-haul flights to the American East Coast and London, its lawyers said before the Chapter 11 court.

The carrier’s previous efforts to mount direct flights to Seattle were foiled by United Airlines in early 2020.

The US airline giant had challenged PAL’s expansion before the US Department of Transportation by arguing that the Philippine government was unfairly denying United Airlines slots in Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

PAL earlier said it would also increase frequency of flights to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Honolulu between late October and November this year.

The carrier wants to ramp up operations as it targets to complete the Chapter 11 reorganization within 2021.

The restructuring plan involves the forgiveness of $2.1 billion in debts, additional equity from owner, billionaire Lucio Tan, and the return of 21 aircraft, or over 20 percent of its fleet.

Parent firm PAL Holdings Inc., which is partly owned by Japan’s ANA Holdings, is also undergoing capital restructuring to help support PAL’s recovery.

The board of PAL Holdings approved the increase of its authorized capital from P13.5 billion to P30 billion, a stock exchange filing on Tuesday (Sept. 28) showed.

PAL Holdings said this was to prepare for the fresh infusion of capital coming from Tan’s Group.

“The new capital will, in turn, be invested into issuer’s subsidiary, Philippine Airlines, pursuant to the court-supervised reorganization of PAL,” PAL Holdings said in the filing.

TSB