PAL flies to Shanghai Oct 28

Philippine Airlines will start a long-planned regular service between Manila and Shanghai on Oct. 28, 2001, giving the flag carrier a direct link to China’s largest city and a second gateway to one of the world’s most dynamic tourist markets.

Shanghai will be one of three new Asia-Pacific destinations – Bangkok and Melbourne are the other two – PAL will launch flights to in the last week of October.

The airline is forging ahead with its modest network expansion, which was programmed long before the current global crisis in the aviation industry, on the back of confidence in the mainstream and niche markets it intends to serve.

The addition of the three new points swells the PAL international network to 20 points in 13 countries and territories.

The service to Shanghai will operate five times a week, with departures from Manila (PR 336) every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 12:15 p.m. Arrival at Pudong International Airport is at 3:50 p.m.

The return service, PR 337, departs Shanghai on the same days at 4:50 p.m. and arrives in Manila at 8:20 p.m.

PAL will deploy Boeing 737-400 aircraft on the route. The narrow bodied jet seats 168 passengers in a monoclass layout.

Shanghai is PAL’s second destination in China. The carrier already operates a four-times-weekly service to Xiamen in southern Fujian province.

More importantly, as China’s financial and commercial hub, Shanghai is well-placed to provide PAL better access to a burgeoning tourist market.

The World Tourism Organization estimates that the number of Chinese traveling overseas will soar from the current 10 million a year to 50 million by 2010, and to 100 million by 2020. This will make China the leading source of tourists worldwide.