PAL inaugurates direct flight to Beijing

Philippine Airlines resumed its flights yesterday to China’s capital of Beijing after a 16-year hiatus.

Government, business and media luminaries packed the flag carrier’s inaugural flight, which took off from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at around 7:30 a.m.

Aboard PR 358 were 254 passengers, 36 of them on business, among them PAL chairman and chief executive officer Dr. Lucio Tan and his wife Carmen Tan, STAR publisher Max V. Soliven, United States Consul General Richard Haynes, China’s Consul General Xiao Qian, Miss International 2005 Precious Lara Quigaman, Ambassador Franklin Ebdalin and a large delegation from the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc.

Jaime Bautista, PAL president and chief operating officer, said the last PAL flight to Beijing was in 1989 when the route was deemed not profitable enough.

With China’s bustling economy, PAL’s resumption of the Manila-Beijing route signals its intention of reclaiming a share of the growing tourism market from the mainland, now estimated at 10 million and expected to increase to 50 million in 2010, he added.

Bautista said China is now the fastest growing market in the world.

"It will improve the tourism activities for both countries," he said, pointing out that they expect hundreds of thousands of Chinese to visit the Philippines in the coming years.

Bautista said yesterday’s inaugural flight was a good start toward making this a possibility.

"We will fly three times a week starting today and the next flights will be Sunday and Tuesday," he said.

The flight from Manila to Beijing takes four hours and 20 minutes.