PAL to relaunch Cebu-Osaka service

Philippine Airlines is set to relaunch on Oct. 26 a direct service between Cebu and Osaka, giving Cebu its third link to economically booming North Asia and boosting Japanese trade and tourism to southern Philippines.

 “The restoration of the PAL link between these two dynamic cities underscores the importance we place on both Osaka as a major source market of tourists and investors, and on Cebu as a destination of choice for the Japanese,” PAL president Jaime Bautista said.

The service will initially operate two times weekly, with flight PR 410 departing from Cebu’s Mactan International Airport every Thursday and Sunday at 8:05 a.m. Arrival at Osaka’s Kansai International Airport is at 1:30 p.m. The return service, PR 409, departs Osaka on the same days at 2:30 p.m. and arrives in Cebu at 6 p.m.

Newly delivered Airbus A320 planes, which seat 12 passengers in Mabuhay (Business) class and 144 in Fiesta (economy) class, are deployed on the route.

The Cebu-Osaka service was one of the flag carrier’s most popular tourist routes when it was introduced in 1994, contributing to the Japanese visitor boom that transformed Cebu into the country’s most vibrant destination after Manila.

But the service was halted in Oct. 2001, when Japanese government travel advisories issued in the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedy in the United States discouraged Japanese from traveling and weakened the market.   – Mary Ann Reyes