Philippine Airlines Plans Papua New Guinea Flights

Philippine Airlines is planning to launch new non-stop service from Manila to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The national flag carrier applied last month for the existing entitlements held by Cebu Pacific.

Copyright Photo: Angelo Agcamaran/PPSG

In an application submitted to the Civil Aeronautics Board, Philippine Airlines asked for the "re-allocation of additional entitlements on the route Manila-Port Moresby from the unutilized seat entitlements previously allocated to Cebu Air Inc."

Southeast Asian Airlines, which now operates under Tigerair Philippines, and is owned by Cebu Pacific, applied in June 2013 for 1,440 seat entitlements, with the intention of using half for flights between Clark and Port Moresby, while the other half would be used on the Manila to Port Moresby route. However, those flights never materialized.

Since the Philippines and Papua New Guinea established a new air agreement in 2012, both Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific have each held 300 seat entitlements to Port Moresby. The Philippine government had requested an additional 720 weekly seat entitlements, but the request was denied by Papua New Guinea as Philippine carriers had failed to use any of the existing 600 entitlements.

Air Niugini, the flag carrier of Papua New Guinea, is presently the only carrier operating the route with three weekly scheduled flights between Manila and Port Moresby aboard a Boeing 737 aircraft. According to Carmelo Arcilla, Executive Director of the Civil Aeronautics Board, Philippine Airlines would like to fly between the two cities four times weekly, while Cebu Pacific would operate flights three times weekly on the same route. 

According to Philippine Airlines President Jaime Bautista, the airline would like to serve Port Moresby because of the rising demand. "We want to fly to Papua New Guinea soon to accommodate the growing number of Filipinos there," said Bautista. Currently, there are approximately 25,000 overseas Filipino workers residing in Papua New Guinea.