Borongan City officials present a surfboard created by a local Boronganon surfer and hand painted by artist AG Sano to executives of flag carrier Philippine Airlines. —Photos by Borongan City Information Office
Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) is set to operate its Cebu-Borongan flights this month, a move that is seen to boost business and tourism activities in the Eastern Samar province.
The Lucio Tan-owned airline and the city government of Borongan recently inked a memorandum of agreement to begin the twice-a-week flights on Dec. 19.
PAL president Stanley Ng said they were working on further connecting Borongan to the rest of the country, noting that launching such flights would allow more tourism activities at a period when consumers were on revenge spending.
The PAL chief gives an airplane model, a token of appreciation, to the Borongan City mayor.
“With these direct flights, it will be more convenient for Boronganons to travel to and from our beloved city. Hopefully, these flights will create more business and tourism opportunities for Borongan,” Borongan City Mayor Jose Dayan Agda said.
Reduced travel time
The Cebu-Borongan flight route is expected to cut travel time between these cities to about four hours only. Currently, travelers to Borongan will have to fly to Tacloban airport, followed by five to six hours of road travel. From Manila, travel by land takes about two days.
Prior to this, PAL had announced new routes from Cebu to Baguio and Cotabato City, which will be available next month.The flag carrier is also set to launch more flights to several destinations, including Puerto Princesa, Cebu, Iloilo, Caticlan and Tacloban.
Philippine Airlines president and chief operating officer Captain Stanley Ng (left) and Borongan City Mayor Jose Ivan Dayan Agda present the signed memorandum of agreement.
The airline cited an anticipated surge in passengers by mid-October up to January given the holiday spending.
Recently, PAL Holdings reported that it registered P6.76 billion in nine-month net profits, supported by its passenger and cargo revenues. This was a reversal from a P21.93-billion net loss in the same period last year.
Nine-month consolidated revenues tripled to P97.77 billion from P32.16 billion a year ago as passenger revenues skyrocketed by 265.3 percent to P79.52 billion. Revenues from the cargo segment climbed by nearly 21 percent to P10.74 billion from P8.91 billion last year.