PAL to resume flights to New York in March

MANILA, Philippines – National flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) announced yesterday it is set to resume flights to New York on March 15 next year.

The move comes just weeks after Lucio C. Tan bought back the shares of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) in the airline for $1.3 billion.

Tan, PAL chief executive, said the airline would fly to New York City as part of its network expansion to the US east coast, after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) upgraded the country’s aviation safety rating back to Category 1 last April.

“This auspicious start of regular flights to New York will coincide with PAL’s 74th founding anniversary,” Tan said.

The four-times-a-week service – Manila-Vancouver-New York – would operate out of New York’s JFK International Airport, and have full traffic rights between Vancouver and New York.

This would bring total US destinations offered by the airline up to five, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu and Guam.

The New York flight, covering a distance of 14,501 kilometers over more than 16 flying hours, would be PAL’s longest route.

The New York service would also boost PAL’s Canadian operations to 11 flights a week, up from seven.

PAL used to fly to New York but was forced to suspend operations in 1997 as a financial crisis battered Asia.

About half a million Filipinos live on the east coast, accounting for around 15 percent of the 3.4-million Filipinos in the US.

Last Sept. 15, the Tan group took back full control of PAL after paying around $1.3 billion to SMC.

The deal brought to a close several months of negotiations between the two major shareholders of Asia’s oldest airline.

With the completion of the buyback, the Tan Group can also take back management control of PAL. SMC president Ramon S. Ang is expected to remain PAL president and chief operating officer.

Former PAL president Jaime Bautista, who served as chief negotiator for the Tan Group during the talks, has been appointed general manager of the airline.

In April 2012, SMC’s subsidiary San Miguel Equity Investments Inc. (SMEII) acquired a 49 percent equity interest in Trustmark Holdings Corp. for $500 million. Trustmark owns 97.71 percent of PAL Holdings, which in turn owns 84.67 percent of PAL through PR Holdings Inc.

With SMC on board, PAL embarked on a massive fleet renewal program involving the acquisition of 100 brand new aircraft.