PHILIPPINE Airlines will take delivery this December of its eighth Boeing 777 encouraging officials of the airline that they would be able to increase its flights to North America.
“With additional seats come additional capacity, which now enables PAL to increase frequencies on its transpacific flights to the US mainland and Canada. Our passengers can now choose from a wider variety of schedules and at the same time, experience service with the heart of the Filipino,” said PAL president and chief operating officer Jaime Bautista.
On Tuesday, PAL led by its chairman Lucio Tan launched its seventh Boeing 777 plane at the Villamor Airbase in Pasay City.
By December, PAL will also begin operating double daily flights between Manila and Los Angeles from the current 10 weekly flights allowing passengers to choose between morning and evening flights.
Flights between Manila and Vancouver will increase from 7 to 10 weekly, while flights between Manila and Toronto will increase from 3 to 4 a week.
The new acquisitions are part of PAL’s fleet modernization program, which together with route network expansion and service innovations, is in line with its vision to be a five-star, full service national carrier of the Philippines.
The two B777s will be Wifi—enabled and are equipped with in-seat inflight entertainment, providing passengers a wide selection of movies, music and shows.
The aircraft cabin—with 42 seats on business and 323 on economy —was designed by LIFT Strategic Design, a Tokyo-based studio, headed up by Daniel Baronl, who also designed the cabin for PAL’s first B777-300ERs.
“It is an immense honor and pleasure to be working with Philippine Airlines again. LIFT is committed to supporting our good friends at PAL in their quest for five stars, and I believe in their potential to achieve that goal,” said Baronl.
The walls separating the cabins show a coastline pattern of the sea around an island. In the forward and rear walls of business class, an exclusive version of coastlines in a light shade of sand is seen. The carpet design of this section is inspired by banig (basket weave) and handwoven floor coverings.
The business class seat fabric has a basket weave pattern in deep sea blue. The overall appearance is fresh and modern, with a premium look and feel. The economy class seat fabric features and flip-flop color-change effect; its colors appear different depending on the viewing angle.
Bautista said the arrival of the brand new plane (B777-300ER) brings to 79 the total fleet count of the PAL Group. He added PAL will have a total of 80 planes by the end of the year.
The 777 is the world’s most successful twin-engine, long-haul airplane. The 777-300ER is equipped with the world’s most powerful GE90-115B commercial jet engine, and can seat up to 386 passengers in a three-class configuration with a maximum range of 7,825 nautical miles (14,490 kilometers).
Bautista said “The B777 has since become our standard for passenger comfort, deployed on our long-haul routes. It is the pivotal equipment that will propel us to our corporate vision of becoming a five-star airline.”
“With the luxurious cabin amenities installed in the B777, we are able to go beyond passenger expectation; we become the airline of choice in the markets we serve; and we can showcase the best of the Philippines and of Filipinos to the world,” he added.