PAL adds 6th China destination

MANILA, Philippines - National flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL), jointly owned by taipan Lucio Tan and diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC), is set to fly to its sixth destination in China on July 16.

PAL president Ramon S. Ang said the airline is set to fly to Guangzhou, China through Guangdong province four times a week.

“The launching of the Manila - Guangzhou - Manila route aims to further strengthen the strong ties between both cities. More importantly, this will allow business travelers and tourists the chance to spend time in the Philippines, and hop to any of our domestic or international destinations,” Ang stressed.

The flag carrier would have four flights weekly to the capital of Guangdong province via PR382, with return flights via PR 383.

PAL first flew to Guangzhou (Canton) on August 1, 1979 using tri-engine Boeing 727-200. PAL was the first Southeast Asian airline to fly to China after Beijing reopened the country’s doors to the outside world in 1975.

PAL’s current destinations in China include Beijing, Xiamen, Shanghai, Macau, and Hong Kong.

The flights are being launched in the wake of robust tourist arrivals to and from Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) as data showed that there were 52,279 Manila tourist arrivals in the Chinese city and 56,107 Chinese tourist arrivals in Manila last year.

The new PAL service provides Guangzhou business and leisure passengers convenient connections to PAL’s 31 domestic and 32 international destinations from its hub in Manila.

PAL will also be one of the few full-service carriers to operate at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport.

PAL launched maiden journeys to Darwin, Brisbane and Perth last month as well as to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Basco, Batanes last May. It is slated to mount flights to Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai, Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam in the Middle East before the end of the year.

Since SMC acquired a 49 percent stake in PAL Holdings worth $500 million in April last year, the national flag carrier embarked on an aggressive re-fleeting program aimed at acquiring 100 new aircraft.

PAL has an existing fleet of 45 aircraft composed of 19 Airbus A320-200, eight A330-300, four A319-100, four A340-300, five Boeing B777-300ER, and five Boeing 747-400.