Philippine Airlines said Wednesday it reopened more flights to mainland China after halting operations for almost three years amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are forging ahead with the restoration of PAL’s Greater China flight network, an investment that will strengthen our connections to the economic hubs in the mainland and help boost bilateral relations between the Filipino and Chinese people,” said Capt. Stanley Ng, president and chief operating officer of PAL.
“We hope that our relaunch of flights to Beijing and Shanghai will help fuel a rebound in tourist and business travel. Our goal is to once again operate the largest network of flights on multiple routes between mainland China and the Philippines,” he said.
The Lucio Tan-led airline is resuming direct flights to Shanghai on Feb. 14 and to Beijing on Feb. 21.
The long-awaited resumption of passenger flights linking Manila with Shanghai’s Pudong Airport and Beijing’s Capital Airport came nearly three years after most services were paused because of pandemic-related border restrictions.
Mainland China was the second largest source of tourists to the Philippines, with 1.74 million Chinese residents visiting in 2019.
Shanghai and Beijing join Xiamen and Guangzhou (Canton) in the roster of PAL’s mainland Chinese destinations.
PAL is also increasing its Manila-Xiamen-Manila flights from weekly to three times weekly starting Feb. 25 and its Manila-Guangzhou-Manila flights from weekly to twice weekly starting Feb. 16, and progressively increasing to daily flights on March 26.
Quanzhou (Jinjiang) and Macau are next in line for resumption in March 2023, PAL said.
PAL said it was working closely with Chinese and Philippine health and aviation authorities to ensure the highest level of health safety protections for travelers.
Prior to the pandemic, PAL served the mainland Chinese cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Quanzhou (Jinjiang) and Xiamen for a total of 34 weekly flights. From March 2020 to present, PAL operated regular and ad hoc all-cargo and charter flights to mainland China, including passenger charters to Tianjin and Wuhan, as well as special vaccine transport flights.
