Photo courtesy of Philippine Airlines
MANILA, Philipines—Philippine Airlines (PAL) is reopening “prime” regional routes to Iloilo next month to cater to strong demand for trips during the Christmas holiday season.
The flag carrier said on Monday (Nov. 29) that it will increase access to Iloilo via Cebu and General Santos on Dec. 7 and Davao on Dec. 8 this year.
PAL said Cebu-Iloilo and General Santos-Iloilo will operate once per week on Tuesdays. Flights between Davao and Iloilo will reopen once per week on Wednesdays.
“Beyond the holidays, the new flights will help foster economic recovery as various parts of Visayas and Mindanao reopen for business and tourism,” PAL said in a statement.
The three new routes will add to PAL’s current regular Manila-Iloilo and Iloilo-Manila services.
Previously, passengers traveling between Iloilo and Cebu, Davao and General Santos would need to fly via Manila.
“As travel restrictions ease, we are happy to reopen these prime routes to and from Iloilo City just in time to host more passengers this coming Christmas season,” PAL senior assistant vice president for sales Harry Inoferio said.
“These new routes will help us in the urgent task of reviving domestic tourism. We also hope to restore more of our pre-pandemic routes and mount new services in the coming months, while strictly adhering to the latest health and safety protocols set by all local government units involved,” he added.
The recovery in international travel hit another speed bump as countries shut borders and raised travel barriers due to the Omicron variant.
On Monday, PAL reminded passengers that eligible flyers arriving from green list countries will be subjected to same quarantine protocols as yellow list countries.
Based on the guidelines, fully-vaccinated passengers who have taken RT-PCR tests 72 hours before arrival will be subjected to facility-based quarantines for three days before taking another swab test.
Those who have taken no test will need to undergo facility-based quarantine for at least five days before taking their swab test. Unvacconated passengers will be swabbed on the seventh day of facility-based quarantine.
Green list countries include Indonesia, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. PAL operates in a number of yellow list countries such as Australia, the Canada, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, South Korea, Thailand and the United States.