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Philippine Airlines (PAL) tops China destination

Posted on March 5, 2008

MANILA, March 5 (PNA)– China looms as the top destination of the country’s airlines, Philippine Airlines (PAL) with 56 weekly flights to seven points this coming May, the most by any Philippine carrier to that country.

The introduction of regular service to Chongqing (2x weekly) on March 14 followed by Chengdu (2x weekly) on March 18 and Macau (5x weekly) on May 1, highlights the dominance of PAL in the booming travel market between the Philippines and China.

They join four other points in the PAL network in mainland China.

PAL currently operates to Shanghai (7x weekly), Xiamen (7x weekly), Hong Kong (28x weekly) and Beijing (up by 1 to 5x weekly by March 30).

Their combined 56 weekly flights of PAL in May will easily surpass the carrierâ€™s operations to the U.S. (33x weekly to five points) and Japan (28x weekly to four points), the traditional bread-and-butter routes of PAL.

On the other hand, together with Hong Kong operations, China, ranks third in terms of revenue contributions after the US and Japan, in that order.

PAL has a long history of pioneering service to China, predating even the founding of the Peopleâ€™s Republic in 1949.

On September 4, 1946, a PAL DC-3 aircraft took off from Manila bound for Shanghai via Hong Kong, one of the first international airlines to venture into China.

On August 1,1979, PAL again made history when it opened a route to Beijing, becoming the first Asian carrier to the Chinese capital, then still largely closed to the outside world. (PNA)

Source: Philippine News Agency

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