Philippine Airlines, the country’s flag carrier has embarked in a refleeting program in what could be the beginning of its hubbing in the Clark International Airport in Pampanga.
PAL is gearing up to launch before the end of this year flights to Batanes as well as Bacolod, Cagayan De Oro and Tagbilaran (Bohol) strengthening its inter-island flights from the CRK.
PAL has also committed to provide US flights via Los Angeles — the first direct flights to the US mainland via the Clark airport. The catchment area of CRK which is the North of Luzon will benefit from these operations of PAL because passengers will no longer take their flights in Manila and instead use Clark airport for their international and domestic flights.
PAL was making a headway recently with the acquisition of new aircrafts to further introduce new routes in Japan, Australia, India and the United States. PAL, which is scheduled to acquire its two Boeing 777s this December, is targeting 15 million passengers this year. By then, PAL will have 96 aircrafts in its refleeting program by 2021. It currently has 86 planes as of today. They plan to phase-out older planes and replace them with brand new planes.
Among the new planes coming include the A321 NEO that will be used for Australia and Japan which has the capacity for a longer range. The service is slated to be in operation by 2018. There will be also next generations of A350s, Q400s, and Boeing 777ERs by year end.
PAL President Jaime Bautista has been at the forefront in making PAL as one of the leading carriers in the country and possibly in Asia. Under the leadership of Bautista, PAL will definitely grow as the government has started decongesting metro manila including easing terminal and runway congestion.
PAL also plans to set up a hub in Clark as well as to set up a Terminal 2 annex building in NAIA to support their growing fleet.
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The Bases Conversion and Development Authority in coordination with the Clark Development Corporation and Clark International Airport Corporation will be launching a branding for Clark before the end of this year that will further market and promote the entire Clark Freeport as part of the programs of the government.
“The idea is to market and promote Clark as a whole,” said BCDA President Vince Dizon during a recent meeting in Manila.
Clark will have a new brand soon.