PAL resumes direct flights to Shanghai

FLAG carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) has resumed its commercial flights to top destinations in China, almost three years after it was forced to pause its Chinese operations due to the pandemic.

PAL President Stanley K. Ng said PAL has started mounting direct flights to Shanghai and will soon relaunch its services to Beijing, Jijiang, and Macao.

“We hope that our relaunch of flights to Beijing and Shanghai will help fuel a rebound in tourist and business travel. Our goal is to once again operate the largest network of flights on multiple routes between mainland China and the Philippines,” Ng said.

The carrier is also beefing up existing flights to Xiamen and Guangzhou.

Mainland China was the second largest source of tourists to the Philippines with 1.74 million Chinese residents visiting in 2019.

PAL initially resumed its Manila-shanghai flights through a thrice-weekly service, which will be increased to seven flights per week starting March 26.

Meanwhile, the legacy airline will operate the Manila-beijing route two times per week starting February 21 and will be increased to four weekly flights come March 26.

It will also start offering daily flights between Manila and Jinjiang and will restore its twiceweekly service between Manila and Macao starting March 26.

PAL is increasing its Manilaxiamen frequency from once weekly to three times weekly starting from February 25; and its Manila-guangzhou-manila flights from once to twice weekly starting February 16, and progressively increasing to daily flights starting on March 26.

“We are forging ahead with the restoration of Pal’s Greater China flight network, an investment that will strengthen our connections to the economic hubs in the mainland and help boost bilateral relations between the Filipino and Chinese people,” Ng said.