But it’s not just the lack of aircraft that is hampering efforts to revive trips to the continent. These flights were last serviced in the tail-end of the recent pandemic in the wake of PAL’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy declaration.
Stanley Ng, president of PAL, outlined other challenges such as securing advantageous slots and incentives that could boost passenger connections to other destinations, making trips more financially sustainable rather than relying on point-to-point traffic.
PAL also preferred mounting trips with the help of a local carrier in the region, likely through a codeshare agreement, he said.
Definitely, there is clamor for direct services between Europe and the Philippines.
Ng said there were 10 countries which had a “wish list” for PAL to return to the continent. He didn’t name all 10 countries but cited France, Italy and Belgium as possible destinations.
There are no ongoing talks to launch flights to Europe as Ng said these require further study.
“It's not easy to launch a new destination if we don't have the support of the other side,” he explained.
“The whole team is really working so hard to crunch numbers and because we want to make it sustainable,” he said.
Trips to Japan have been very popular, and PAL is looking to increase its services from Manila and Cebu.
Ng said passengers can expect the relaunch of Cebu-Osaka and Manila-Sapporo trips at some point in the future.
Tags: PAL, Philippine Airlines, Lucio Tan, airlines, travel, Europe, flights, expansion, revenge travel
Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.
