PHILIPPINE Airlines (PAL) is targeting to ferry 17 million passengers this year, 6% higher than the 16 million passengers served in 2018.
“We are expecting to carry 17 million passengers. Last year, it was only 16 million,” PAL President and Chief Operating Officer Jaime J. Bautista told reporters in Manila on Wednesday.
Mr. Bautista said the flag carrier is anticipating an increase in passengers to and from Japan following an investment from ANA Holdings, Inc. (ANA HD), parent of Japan’s biggest airline All Nippon Airways. ANA is acquiring a minority stake in PAL Holdings, Inc. for $95 million (around P5 billion).
“We are expecting spike (in number of passengers)… That’s the reason we are increasing our flights to Japan. We will increase our Cebu to Nagoya flights from four times a week to daily. We are upgrading some of the aircraft, instead of flying the Airbus 321, we can operate the bigger airplanes,” he said.
Mr. Bautista said the flag carrier will increase its flights between Manila and Toronto to 14 times weekly from ten times weekly, starting March 31. Flights to New York will also be made daily starting March 31.
Meanwhile, PAL launched its Premium Economy service which features overly spacious seat plus 300 hours of inflight entertainment. — RJNI
