MANILA, Oct. 28 (PNA) — Philippine Airlines (PAL), the country’s flag carrier, on Tuesday announced it will be expanding routes to Japan with the opening of new services to Osaka and Nagoya via Cebu.
In a statement, PAL said that by December 19, the airline will begin operating four weekly flights (Mondays/Thursdays/Fridays/Sundays) between Cebu and Osaka on PR 410.
PAL will, meanwhile, start operating three weekly flights (Tuesdays/Wednesdays/Sundays) between Cebu and Nagoya on PR 480 the next day (Dec. 20.)
With the new routes to be launched in December this year, PAL will soon have a total of 67 flights to Japan per week.
“The launching of the new air services is the flag carrier’s response to strong public clamor for new routes to Japan, considered the third biggest source of visitor arrivals to the country,” PAL said.
Arrivals from Japan have reached 310,901, an increase of 5.95 percent from the 293,445 tallied during the same period last year, data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) from January to August this year showed.
The new routes will commence nine months after the air carrier launched flights to Haneda, PAL’s fifth gateway to Japan after Narita, Osaka, Fukuoka and Nagoya.
PAL currently operates from Manila 11 weekly flights to Haneda (Tokyo), 14 weekly flights to Narita (Tokyo), seven weekly flights each to Nagoya, Osaka (Kansai), and Fukuoka.
From Cebu, there are 14 weekly flights to Narita (Tokyo). (PNA)