Philippine Airlines is the flag carrier of the Philippines and operates to 31 destinations in the Philippines and 36 overseas destinations in Southeast Asia, East Asia, Middle East and Oceania. These destinations include Brisbane, Darwin, Melbourne, Toronto, Vancouver, Shanghai, Xiamen, General Santos, Davao, Kalibo, Manila, Puerto Princesa, Dammam, Busan, Seoul, Taipei and many others. Philippine Airlines has codeshare agreements with All Nippon Airways, Cathay Pacific, Etihad Airways, Gulf Air, Hawaiian Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Turkish Airlines and WestJet. Philippine Airlines is the only airline that flies non-stop from Manila to London and flies 5x weekly. Philippine Airlines recently announced that its new brand philosophy to become a five-star airline in five years with service innovations, route network expansion and fleet modernisation as its flagship initiatives, guided by a new brand philosophy -"Heart of the Filipino".
Philippine Airlines operates a frequent flyer program called Mabuhay Miles to reward regular travellers. Mabuhay Miles allows passengers to ear flight miles with the largest network in the Philippines, and many more destinations around the world including North Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, North America, Middle East and Europe. Philippine Airlines' Business Class seats of B777-300ER are adjustable to a variety of the positions at the passenger's option. The seats may recline with a 15 degree angle and is outfitted with a 15.4 inches seat-back mounted and 10.6 inches arm touch-screen television.
Philippine Airlines at the moment has the strong objective of becoming a five-star airline, following a 29 month administration that favoured cost efficiency over passenger comfort. These are great news to Philippines as a country, as their flagship carrier is a major ambassador of the country overseas. Restoring the prestige to be at the level of a legacy carrier will be beneficial both for the company and the country as it will increase passenger count going in the Philippines and will leave a good image of the country where ever the carrier flies. The shift in direction comes at a perfect moment in time, as The Philipines' economy has been one of the fastest growing in Asia over the last couple of years. The economic prosperity will be further improved by the carrier's new course of action, as they will create more jobs both directly and indirectly and help serve a larger amount of passengers world wide.
In December 2016, Philippine Airlines adds second Singapore route from Cebu, including a direct connection to Singapore. The national carrier has confirmed that its non-stop Cebu-Singapore route will take off on 16 December 2016, operating four times a week. Flights will depart the Philippine city every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday evening and return the following morning. All services will be operated using the airline’s new 199-seat Airbus A321 aircraft. PAL already offers four daily flights between Manila and Singapore. Also launching on 16 December will be a new daily domestic service connecting Cebu with Caticlan and Clark. Caticlan is a gateway to the resort island of Boracay while Clark is an alternative option for travellers to Manila.
PAL currently has a three-star rating, sitting behind Thai Airways International with four stars, but ahead of Bangladesh Biman with two. North Korea's Air Koryo sits at the bottom of the rankings with just one star. In March, Philippine Airlines said it was targeting a five-star rating from Skytrax, the consultancy which ranks airlines and airports, by 2020 to bolster its global profile and put it on a par with larger Asian carriers like Japan's All Nippon Airways and Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways. Philippine Airlines has outlined its proposed Clark hub operations as part of government's overall plan to decongest Manila Ninoy Aquino Int'l, located just 90 kilometres away. Beginning December 16, Philippine Airlines will offer a 7x weekly return service from Clark to Caticlan using Dash 8-400 equipment. The flights will benefit residents in Northern Metro Manila and Luzon due to the proximity of Clark International Airport to these areas.
In March 2017, Philippines Airlines announced it was launching 5 new routes on its domestic network. Four of these involved Cebu with all new services from there operated daily. The airline is using a mix of its own A320s and turboprop aircraft flown by its subsidiary PAL Express. On three of the five new routes the national flag carrier will face competition from its main rival Cebu Pacific Air and its subsidiary CebGo. The average sector length of these new routes is 467 kilometres. ). In March 2017, it was announced that Philippine Airlines was having advanced talks with potential investors, who could acquire as much as 50% of the flag carrier. Since tycoon Lucio Tan bought back his majority stake in PAL in 2014, the airline has been searching for a strategic investor to help fund its fleet and route expansion. The airline is interested in “less than 40 percent” of PAL. The law limits foreigners to 40-percent ownership of Philippine companies. In May 2017, Philippine Airlines announced it will "temporarily suspend" its Cebu-Los Angeles service effective May 30. PAL said passengers with tickets of the Cebu-Los Angeles flights dated May 30 and onwards may re-route and/or rebook their flights to Cebu-Manila-Los Angeles flights. Those with Los Angeles-Cebu flights may re-route and/or rebok their flights to Los Angeles-Manila-Cebu.
In April 2017, Philippine Airlines expands Clark service from June 2017. Philippine Airlines from late-June 2017 continues to expand domestic operation from Clark, including the addition of 3 new routes. The following is planned new service.
Clark – Bacolod eff 22JUN17 3 weekly A321
PR833 CRK0700 – 0815BCD 321 246
PR834 BCD0855 – 1010CRK 321 246
Clark – Cagayan de Oro eff 23JUN17 4 weekly A321
PR859 CRK0630 – 0810CGY 321 x246
PR860 CGY0850 – 1030CRK 321 x246
Clark – Tagbilaran eff 22JUN17 1 daily PAL Express A320 (previously reported)
PR2871 CRK1500 – 1620TAG 320 D
PR2872 TAG0640 – 0800CRK 320 D
In May 2017, Philippine Airlines announced it was gradually ending domestic wide-body service on serveral key domestic routes, served by Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft. Affected routes as follow.
Manila – Cebu Last A340-300 flight operating on 27MAY17 from MNL, 29MAY17 from CEB. Last A330 flight operating on 31MAY17
Manila – Davao Last A330-300 flight operating on 31MAY17
Manila – Puerto Princesa Last A330-300 flight operating on 30MAY17
By 01JUN17, the sole domestic wide-body operation will be Manila – General Santos, served by Airbus A330-300 once a day.
Bangkok
Philipine Airlines is a great global carrier which currently does not fly into Europe. It operates an extensive domestic network serving 32 destinations from hubs at Manila and Cebu. Internationally China, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea and Japan are served within Asia plus Canada and the United States in North America and Melbourne and Sydney in Australia.
