MANILA, 4 May 2018: Following the closure of Boracay island, 26 April, Philippines Airlines will increase international flights to Cebu this month through to July.
Airlines in the Philippines are rushing to shore up flights from key tourist supply markets such as China, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan to beach destinations in the Philippines.
Boracay Island’s two airports are virtually closed with just a few domestic flights to serve local traffic.
The island has closed for six months to allow government agencies to resolve sewage and waste water management issues and begin the process of cleaning up bays that were once a paradise for foreign tourists. In the meantime, airlines need to divert holiday traffic to other islands and beach destinations.
PAL will increase flights, 8 May, between Cebu and Chengdu in Sichuan province, China, from one to twice weekly and up again to three weekly by 5 July.
PAL Express will increase services on the Cebu-Nagoya, (Japan) route from three to four weekly flights effective 12 July.
On the Cebu –Taipei Taoyuan route, PAL Express will introduce a weekly schedule charter flight from 13 June to 29 August.
Meanwhile, Philippine Airlines will replace its A340 with a single-aisle A321neo on the non-stop Brisbane-Manila service. There are also plans to expand direct services to Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland.
PAL will take delivery of 21 aircraft by the end of 2019 and plans to use them to expand flights from Davao, Cebu and Clark.
The airline’s 2018 expansion includes nonstop flights from Manila to New York starting 28 October.
During the last quarter of the year, PAL will launch direct services to New Delhi and Mumbai in India as well as Sapporo in Japan.
Routes on which PAL is boosting frequencies include Cebu-Siargao, Davao-Tagbilaran, Davao-Clark, and Cebu-Bangkok.
