By Mohammad Shoeb
DOHA: Philippine Airlines (PAL), after the recent opening of five weekly regular services to Doha from Manila (via Abu Dhabi), is planning to start direct flights in the Doha-Manila sector, a top official of the carrier said yesterday.
“We are planning to commence direct flights from Doha to Manila once we improve and build up passenger loads to the route,” David Lim, Senior Vice President (Commercial Group)at PAL told The Peninsula on the sidelines of a press conference held to mark the inaugural flight to Doha which started from March 28.
David, who was here with the inaugural flight to Doha leading a delegation of senior executives of PAL along with the members of the local media, added: “We are very happy to launch the new service. And given the big size of the Philippine community in Qatar, we have great expectations about the growth prospects.”
He said that in addition to the Filipino compatriots in Qatar, the airline is also targeting Qatari citizens and residents to travel to the Philippines, the archipelago consisting of over 7,000 beautiful islands.
The Philippines biggest and the oldest carrier is also planning to urge its government to promote Halal food and restaurants across the country to attract more tourists from the Arab and Muslim world, including Qatar.
The five times weekly service (except Wednesday and Sunday) to Qatar’s capital city will utilise one of PAL’s newest aircraft, the Airbus 330.
The aircraft offers economy and premium economy products, the whole cabin comes with free wi-fi worth 30 minutes or 15mp of video streaming using the passengers’ personal devices through the app myPAL player which can be downloaded through iTunes or Google store.
With the opening of Doha service, the airline will now be flying to seven destinations across the GCC region, including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Kuwait, Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam.
“Following the successful launch to Jeddah and Kuwait last January, PAL continues to grow its routes in the Middle East by opening a new route to Doha. Our overseas Filipino workers in Qatar can now enjoy that distinct Filipino service that will bring them much closer to home,” said PAL President Jaime J Bautista.
The new service will allow the 200,000 Filipinos living and working in Qatar a convenient route to and from their motherland. Likewise, Qataris can now enjoy an easy route to discover the wonders of the Philippines and Philippine Airlines through convenient connections to any of PAL’s 30 domestic and 43 international destinations. The airline, which marked its 75th anniversary two weeks ago, witnessed double-digit growth over the last few years. In 2014 and 2015 it carried some 10 million and 12 million passengers, respectively, and expecting the number to grow to about 14 million in 22016, David added.
“Today, we operate 75 modern jets to 43 international destinations and 30 domestic destinations. In the past we launched regular services to Jinjiang (China) Cairns (Australia), Auckland (New Zealand), and a new route from Cebu in central Philippines to Los Angeles non-stop. Tickets for the Manila-Doha route starts at $665 (one way), and $760 (roundtrip). The Doha-Manila tickets, meanwhile, starts at QR980 (one way) and QR1,400 (round trip).
