SEAIR now flies to La Union

MANILA, Philippines - North Luzon travelers can now experience the convenience of direct roundtrip flights between Manila and San Fernando, La Union.

Southeast Asian Airlines (SEAIR) has become the first leisure airline to serve the route when it made its inaugural flight Wednesday.

The one-hour Manila-San Fernando flights are scheduled on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

SEAIR passengers can also avail themselves of complimentary land transfers from San Fernando to Baguio City and back.

Baguio is the economic and tourism center of the Cordilleras and is popular for its vibrancy, beautiful mountain scenery and cool weather all year round.

San Fernando is among the newly re-developed destinations in the country. Among its completed projects is the newly refurbished P500-million San Fernando Airport.

La Union is also home to one of the finest five-star hotels in the North, the Thunderbird Resorts-Poro Point.

A SEAIR vacation package is available for as low as P11,954 per person and includes roundtrip airfare to San Fernando, and two-night accommodation with daily breakfast and roundtrip transfers, among others.

Incorporating Mediterranean architecture influenced by the Santorini Islands of Greece, the 65-hectare resort boasts of stylish luxury suites perched on a 100-foot cliff overlooking the white sand beach and the South China Sea, and a full set of world-class services and amenities.

“Current developments in the province augur well with the leisure market that SEAIR wants to develop for the new destination,” said SEAIR president Avelino Zapanta.

“Furthermore, SEAIR intends to market the flight as a two-destination flight to include Baguio. Arrangements have been made so that the land component for the Baguio-bound passengers can be made as convenient, safe and fast as possible,” he said.

SEAIR posted record-breaking ticket sales from January to February this year, more than 40 percent than what it generated during the same period in 2009.

The growth was attributed to an enhanced online ticketing system, the longest continuous direct flights to Caticlan, improved passenger services such as complimentary transfers, and the development of new destinations.

“The surge in domestic travel helped a lot. Domestic tourism added to the local traffic resulted in a hefty growth of the collective domestic passenger traffic. The trend will continue and even improve this year. All the local airlines are bullish about the immediate future,” said Zapanta.

“This year, we are studying a number of potential destinations both domestically and in the region. We have not made any definite decisions but we will announce accordingly if plans are finalized,” he said.

SEAIR has been serving key tourist destinations since 1995, including Boracay, Basco (Batanes), Tablas (Romblon), Marinduque, El Nido (Palawan), Cebu, Clark (Pampanga), Zamboanga, Jolo (Sulu), and Tawi-Tawi.

The airline also offers the most routes to and from Caticlan with flights from Caticlan to Manila, Clark and Cebu.

The Poro Point Management Corp., which financed the San Fernando Airport expansion, expects passenger and cargo traffic to improve the economy of La Union and its neighboring provinces.

La Union’s coastal towns boast of one of the country’s top surfing destinations and the province has a rich cultural heritage and historical landmarks.

SEAIR is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. It is the second oldest airline in the country and has flown almost three million passengers.

“SEAIR will definitely be very much around five years from now. We’ll make sure that by then it would be bigger, better and continually being preferred by our chosen market segment — the leisure travelers,” Zapanta said.

To purchase tickets, visit www.FlySeair.com or call (632) 849-0100. For packages, call SEAIR Leisure Escape Packages at (632) 843-7308. Join the SEAIR Facebook Fan Page for updates on promos and new routes.