PAL planning up to 14 weekly Toronto flights

Business World
December 5, 2012
By Jeffrey O. Valisno

Toronto, Canada - Flag Carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) plans to increase flights to Toronto to as many as 14 a week, following its inaugural direct flight from Manila on Friday last week.

During the press conference here on Monday, PAL Vice-President for Marketing Support Felix J. Cruz said consumer response to the airline's newly launched non-stop Manila-Toronto flight has been "very overwhelming".

"The thrice-a-week schedule of the Manila-Toronto flight has been fully booked since we launched the service using our brand new Boeing 777-300 ER (Extended Range)," Mr. Cruz said. "Because of this, we thought of adding more flights to cater to the growing clientele," he addded.

The Manila-Toronto route now has flights every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday that leave the Terminal 2 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 3 p.m.

Mr. Cruz said that, starting next month, PAL will add four more flights to Canada's larget city. These will be 15-hour direct flights from Manila to Toronto every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday also at 3 p.m., the airline official said.

"The return flights of these new schedules will have brief stop-overs in Vancouver from Toronto before flying back to Manila," he added.

Mr. Cruz said PAL plans to double these flight frequencies to as many as twice a day or up to 14 times a week if demand for the Manila-Toronto route continues to increase.

Toronto is PAL's 27th international route and 46th destination overall. The flight to Toronto marks the airline's return to the eastern part of North America in 15 years.

Mr. Cruz said Canada is among the top 10 sources of foreign visitors to the Philippines, with 96,000 Canadian passport-holders visiting the Philippines last year. Mr. Cruz said government tourism officials have expressed confidence that the target of 120,000 Canadian visitors a year will be breached by yearend.

Mr. Cruz said PAL expects delivery of its fifth Boeing 777-300 ER by April next year, which the airline intends to use for its planned direct flights to Darwin, Australia.

"Darwin will be the third PAL destination in Australia after Sydney and Melbourne," Mr. Cruz said.

Meanwhile, he said PAL is scheduled to implement its "Book and Buy" scheme with Petron Corp. within the next two weeks.

Under the said scheme, tourists can pay for their PAL domestic and international tickets in any of Petron gas station, initially in Metro Manila.

"We are also currently working on a partnership with 7-Eleven to allow customers to pay to the convenience store cashiers for the PAL tickets they purchased online," he added.