Philippine Airlines (PAL) is reopening more flights to mainland China, the country’s second largest source of tourists, after an absence of almost three years due to COVID-19 pandemic.
“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,” Capt. Stanley K. Ng, PAL president and chief operating officer said.
“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,” he added.
The Lucio Tan-led airline resumed direct flights to Shanghai on February 14 and to Beijing on February 21.
The long-awaited resumption of passenger flights linking Manila with Shanghai’s Pudong Airport and Beijing’s Capital Airport comes almost three years after most services were halted due to pandemic-related border restrictions.
Mainland China is the second largest source of tourists to the Philippines with 1.74 million Chinese residents visiting in 2019.
Shanghai and Beijing joined Xiamen and Guangzhou (Canton) in the roster of PAL’s mainland Chinese destinations.
PAL is also increasing its Manila-Xiamen-Manila flights from once weekly to three times weekly starting 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.
Quanzhou (Jinjiang) and Macau are next in line for a resumption in March 2023.
PAL said it is working closely with Chinese and Philippine health and aviation authorities to ensure the highest level of health safety protections for travelers.
Prior to the pandemic, PAL served the mainland Chinese cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Quanzhou (Jinjiang) and Xiamen for a total of 34 weekly flights.
From March 2020 up to present, PAL operates regular and ad hoc all-cargo and charter flights to mainland China, including passenger charters to Tianjin and Wuhan, as well as special vaccine transport flights.
