Philippine Airlines said Monday it is expanding its international and domestic flights by the fourth quarter in anticipation of tourist and business travel revival as the Philippines ramps up vaccination and improves travel and economic conditions nationwide.
The flag carrier said by late October, it would increase flights to San Francisco, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Guam, Singapore, Dubai, Doha, Nagoya and Fukuoka while continuing special flights to Auckland, Vietnam and points in Australia.
More flights to Honolulu and Taipei will come online by the last week of November.
The airline’s winter season schedule also includes regular flights to New York JFK, Seoul, Saudi Arabia, Vancouver, Toronto and other Asian destinations.
PAL said that on domestic routes, it would add flight frequencies to Iloilo, Legazpi, Butuan, Puerto Princesa, Bacolod, Dumaguete and Roxas City. PAL’s Cebu hub will see additional frequencies between Cebu and Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod, Butuan and Davao.
“As travel restrictions ease, we are progressively increasing flights on high-density routes and operating special commercial and repatriation flights to build passenger traffic,” said PAL senior vice president and chief strategy and planning officer Dexter Lee.
“While demand may not come back to pre-pandemic levels until 2024, we will implement a fleet and network plan that will maintain Philippine Airlines as a market leader in the international and domestic sectors,” he said.
PAL steadily built up operations in recent months, now averaging 27 percent of the pre-pandemic flights on 70 percent of its route network.
PAL secured an approval from US Bankruptcy Court in New York to access the first $20 million from a $505-million loan facility to support operations. The airline plans to exit from the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy process by end of the year.
PAL reported total comprehensive loss amounting to P18.04 billion in the first half, down 18 percent from the P22.02-billion comprehensive loss in the same period last year.
Consolidated revenues in the six-month period declined by 51 percent to P18.04 billion from last year’s P36.82 billion because of the effect of continuing COVID-19 pandemic which started in mid-March of 2020.