Philippine Airlines said Wednesday it will start direct flights between Manila and seven cities in the Middle East on March 26.
PAL said it would fly non-stop from Manila to Dubai, Doha, Kuwait, Jeddah, Abu Dhabi, Dammam and Riyadh.
PAL said the Manila-Dubai flights would operate seven times weekly; Manila-Doha and Manila-Kuwait, four times weekly each; Manila-Jeddah and Manila-Abu Dhabi, thrice weekly each; Manila -Dammam, five-times-a-week; and Manila-Riyadh, seven-times-a-week.
PAL is currently flying to Kuwait and Jeddah via Dubai, while the Manila to Doha flight is via Abu Dhabi.
“The non-stop service will give us a better product to offer our kababayans, our overseas Filipino workers,” PAL president and chief operating officer Jaime Bautista said.
The current operating aircraft for the Middle East is PAL’s all-economy 414- seater Airbus A330.
The shift to the bi-class A330, with full-flat beds on business class, will take place on June 15 for Dubai; July 15 for Abu Dhabi and Doha; Aug. 15 for Riyadh; and Sept. 15 for Kuwait and Jeddah.
“The shift to bi-class service across all Middle East routes gives our passengers the flexibility to choose between regular economy, premium economy and business class service,” Bautista said.
PAL said with the non-stop operations to and from Manila, travelers from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia would now have direct and non-stop travel to the Philippines and connections to other international destinations where PAL has operations.
PAL expects to carry 15 million domestic and international passengers this year, up from 13.5 million passengers last year.
The airline, now wholly-owned by tycoon Lucio Tan after he bought back a 49-percent stake that San Miguel Corp. purchased from him in 2012, posted a comprehensive income of P2.96 billion in the first nine months of 2016, lower by 54.8 percent than the previous year’s P6.55 billion.
Revenues in January to September rose 3.5 percent to P85.35 billion from P82.48 billion a year ago.
The airline’s total operating expenses increased 8.9 percent to P76.21 billion.