January 14, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) is betting on a new route and expanding its Siargao flights from Cebu, as the carrier moves to strengthen its domestic coverage this year.
In an advisory, PAL said it is scaling up its Cebu flights by adding a new destination in Catarman and increasing weekly services to Siargao.
By March 1, PAL will initiate a thrice a week service between Cebu and Catarman, the capital of Northern Samar and the most populous town in Eastern Visayas.
PAL will operate the Cebu-Catarman flights every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The airline is deploying an 86-seater De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 New Generation that flies at near-jet speeds and runs with a quieter engine.
PAL Express president Rabbi Ang said the airline decided to launch Cebu flights to Catarman to boost Northern Samar’s trade and travel viability. PAL also aims to provide travelers from the province access to a wider range of flights from Cebu.
“PAL is happy to upgrade its services to Catarman through this new link from Cebu, (as) Samar residents and travelers will now have better access to Cebu, and the new route will also give our Cebuanos more options to visit Northern Samar,” Ang said.
From Cebu, travelers can connect to Bacolod, Busuanga, Cagayan de Oro, Caticlan, Clark, Iloilo, Puerto Princesa and Siargao.
PAL also links Catarman with Manila, operating flights between the routes four times a week.
Further, PAL will raise its Cebu-Siargao flights to 18 times a week starting March 1. The carrier will operate a midmorning schedule every Wednesday and Sunday to give travelers more choices when headed to the surfing haven.
The airline said by growing its flight volume to Siargao, it would contribute to enhancing its tourism industry. PAL also flies to Siargao twice a day from Manila, as well as thrice weekly from Clark.
For January, PAL improved flight schedules from Cebu to Busuanga to thrice daily; to Cagayan de Oro to four times daily; to Caticlan to thrice daily; and to Legazpi to daily.
From Cebu, PAL also reaches Bangkok, Incheon, Narita and Osaka, making it the second largest airline operating at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
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