NEW YORK—Philippine Airlines is seeking to mount additional flights to the United States and Canada, as a part of a global expansion.
PAL president and chief operating officer Jaime Bautista told reporters the flag carrier initially wanted to increase flights between Manila and New York via Vancouver, Canada from the current four to the maximum limit of five per week.
PAL’s first flight to New York in 18 years, PR 126 using a Boeing 777-300ER, touched down at John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal 1 on March 16 at 7 a.m.
Bautista said the four-times-weekly service, covering 14,501 kilometers and PAL’s longest route, carried more than 300 passengers, signalling a strong demand and reception from Filipino-American, American and Canadian passengers.
The service also boosted PAL’s Canadian operations to 11 weekly flights from the previous seven.
“We are working with the US and Canadian authorities to have additional entitlements,” Bautista said. He said the current agreement provided for a maximum of five weekly flights.
Bautista said PAL was in talks with both aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus for additional aircraft that would support its long-haul flights, especially to the US and Europe. He said the plan, including the number of aircraft, remained to be finalized.
PAL said based on statistics, Filipinos on the East Coast accounted for 15 percent of some 3.4-million Filipino population in the US. About half a million Filipinos reside on the East Coast, with more than 253,000 in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area, 90,000 in Virginia, 75,000 in Washington DC and environs and 31,000 in the Philadelphia metro area.
Bautista said PAL would soon avail of the maximum number of flights allowed on the Manila-Vancouver-New York service while negotiations were underway for more frequencies.
He said load factor at the Manila-Vancouver-New York service was expected to improve within the next six months, as the airline continued to attract more American tourists and Filipino-Americans to visit the Philippines.
Tourism Undersecretary Benito Bengzon, who attended the inaugural ceremony in New York, said the Tourism Department aimed to attract more than 1 million US tourists to the Philippines in three years.
Bengzon said the introduction of PAL’s flight to New York would help achieve the tourism goal. “It was also a proud moment for the Philippines,” he said.