PAL adds more long haul, int’l trips for holidays
Philippine Airlines (PAL) will add long-haul flights to London and North America this month as it expects strong demand for air travel during the Christmas holiday season.
In a statement on Friday, PAL announced plans to mount 10 to 12 weekly flights from Manila to Los Angeles, daily fights to San Francisco and three to four weekly flights to Vancouver on the Canadian West Coast.
It will also mount two to three weekly trips from Manila to New York, one flight per week to Toronto, and two to three weekly flights to Honolulu. PAL will also mount two monthly “special flights” to London.
Its special flights to London (Heathrow) are set for the following dates: Oct. 5 and 26, Nov. 9 and 23; Dec. 7 and 14 and Jan. 4 and 11 in 2022.
“We are heeding the call for more flights to and from the US Mainland, Canada and the UK to serve many of our fellow Filipinos who want to rejoin their families in time for the Christmas holidays,” Dexter Lee, senior vice president and chief strategy and planning officer of PAL, said in the statement.
“As travel restrictions ease in coming months, our nonstop global links can help the Philippines stage a comeback in tourism,” he added.
PAL earlier sealed an interline agreement with Hawaiian Airlines to carry passengers from Honolulu to US destinations such as Seattle (Washington), Las Vegas (Nevada) and Portland (Oregon).
“We are broadening airline partnerships in order to provide our customers a convenient way to fly to these major cities in the Pacific Northwest and Sunbelt regions of the United States, or from these areas to the Philippines,” Oscar Reyes, senior vice president for sales and marketing of PAL, said in the same statement. PAL noted that regular flights to Dubai, Dammam, Doha and Riyadh as well as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul and Japan would increase as “travel demand recovers in line with easing of restrictions.”
PAL is also set to mount “several” monthly special trips to Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Auckland.
