News
PAL axes Cairns in favour of nonstop Auckland flights
August 25th 2017
Philippine Airlines (PAL) has announced it would convert its four-weekly Manila-Cairns-Auckland A320 service into a thrice-weekly Manila-Auckland A340-300 nonstop route starting December 6. Read More »
PAL will no longer fly to Cairns following the schedule change.
The Filipino flag carrier has said those with tickets on the Manila-Cairns route for travel after December 6 would be offered the chance to rebook their flights on another of PAL’s Australian routes or be offered a refund. Passengers holding tickets for Cairns-Auckland would be transferred onto other carriers.
PAL offers nonstop flights from its Manila hub to Sydney and Melbourne. It also offers a Manila-Darwin-Brisbane A320 triangular route.
PAL president, Jaime Bautista, has previously said the airline would be looking to decouple the Darwin and Brisbane routes as it takes delivery of more fuel-efficient A321neo/neoLR from 2018.
PAL will roster an A340-300 on the direct Auckland service, seating 254 passengers in a two-class configuration. The carrier will replace the quadjets with six A350s on direct order from Airbus, also from 2018.
Air New Zealand last year announced an Auckland-Manila route but this has not materialized.
In other PAL news, the airline will replace the ageing A340 with the B777-300ER on the daily Manila-Heathrow route starting September 19.
“With its range and operational capability, the flag carrier will be at par with other full service carriers along the route. We will also increase capacity as the aircraft will have a 370-seating capacity on a two – class configuration (42 in business and 328 in economy) as compared to the 254-seating capacity of the A340,” Bautista said.
PAL is making strides in becoming a five-star premium airline. It has introduced new cabins and service concepts.
In further updates, PAL and Royal Brunei Airlines are now code-sharing on flights between Manila-Bandar Seri Begawan, as well as Cebu-Bandar Seri Begawan (via Manila).
