Philippine Flights

About Philippine Airlines

From its humble beginnings of a single route between the Philippine capital of Manila and Cebu, national carrier, Philippine Airlines, or PAL, has blossomed into one of Asia's premier airlines. Along the way were many accomplishments, some struggles but impressive aviation firsts too.

Founded in 1941, the airline is the first and oldest airline in Asia still operating under its original name. In 1946, it was the first Asian airline to cross the Pacific Ocean. A year later, it was the first Southeast Asian carrier to fly to Europe, opening routes from Manila to Rome, Manila to Madrid, and eventually to Frankfurt too. The airline was also the first to be awarded for its inflight cuisine, honoured with Les Chaines des Rotisseurs in 1979, the ancient order of gourmets.

Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL), or NAIA, is the primary hub for Philippine Airlines, with Cebu's Mactan-Cebu International Airport (CEB) operating as an important secondary hub city.

In 1995, subsidiary PAL Express was launched to handle certain short-haul domestic routes, creating a lucrative domestic monopoly for the carrier. Although PAL never joined an airline alliance, it has built important code-sharing relationships with the following airlines: Air Macau, All Nippon Airways, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, Etihad, Garuda, Gulf Air, Hawaiian Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, PAL Express, Turkish Airlines, Vietnam Airlines, WestJet and XiamenAir.

By the end of the 90s though, Philippine Airlines was forced to suspend many of its operations on the heels of the Asian financial crisis, cancelling many of its routes and drastically downsizing its fleet. By the turn of the century however, the troubled carrier began to rebound to record a profit, its first in six years.

In 2002, Philippines Airlines re-launched their revamped frequent flyer program, Mabuhay Miles, offering members a simplified, tiered earn and redeem system. Their fleet was invigorated with orders for new planes, once-cancelled routes were reintroduced and new destinations were added.

Using their new Boeing B777-300ER, the airline's network expanded to include non-stop flights between Toronto and Manila in 2012, bolstering their already popular service to Vancouver.

Philippine Airline Destinations - (small snippet of text, then a bulleted list hyperlinking to flight paths for each destination)

Fly non-stop to Manila from Vancouver or Toronto with Philippine Airlines to more than 30 domestic and over 40 international destinations throughout Asia, The Middle East, Oceania, North America and Europe.

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