Philippine Airlines said it will launch a regular service between Manila and Perth, the first nonstop air link between Western Australia and the Philippines, in March 2020.
“We are thrilled to welcome Perth to our network,” PAL chief marketing officer Eugene Go said.
“Our pioneer nonstop flights will allow us to vigorously promote the Philippines as a top-notch tourist experience for residents of Western Australia, and we look forward to extending our gracious Filipino hospitality to them from the moment they step on board our brand-new planes flown by our experienced professional crew,” he said.
PAL will deploy its long-range Airbus A321neo aircraft on the Manila-Perth-Manila route.
PAL operates the largest network of flights between the Philippines and Australia.
Perth is PAL’s fourth Australian gateway, joining Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, all of which are served with nonstop flights using Airbus A330 and A321neo aircraft.
PAL offers 19 weekly nonstop flights to these four Australian destinations, three weekly flights to Auckland, New Zealand and four weekly flights to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
Australia is the Philippines’ fifth largest source of tourist visitors. Data showed that 279.821 Australians visited the Philippines in 2018, while more than 203,000 Australians visited the country in the first nine months of 2019.
PAL Holdings Inc., the parent firm of PAL, earlier reported a net loss of P7.86 billion in the first nine months, up 139.2 percent from P3.29-billion losses last year. Consolidated revenues in the January to September period increased 5.6 percent to P117.92 billion.