LAX Still PAL Biggest Market

10 December 2020

Los Angeles remains to be Philippine Airlines (PAL) top North American destination in 2019 with almost 557,000 seats last year, equivalent to 32% of its US/Canada total, according to data compiled by Official Airline Guide (OAG).

Manila-Los Angeles route had an estimated 83% seat factor, with 76% of passengers being to/from Manila.

It was served eighteen flights per week with Boeing B777-300ERs and Airbus A350-900s.

Data from OAG disclosed that PAL had over 1.7m North American seats in 2019, up by 71% over 2010 for a decent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5%. 

PAL flies to six destinations in North American since 2015 serving Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, New York JFK, and Toronto. It was supposed to open Seattle and Chicago this year.

The airline market revolves around Filipino diaspora in North America with over 610,000 traveling Filipinos in Greater Los Angeles alone which has the largest volume outside of the Philippines, followed by San Francisco, New York, Honolulu, Toronto, San Diego, and Vancouver.

OAG Traffic Analyser also disclosed that Chicago remains Manila’s largest unserved North American market last year with 104,000 passengers. 

Meanwhile, 24% of Filipino VFR passengers transiting in Los Angeles to Manila came from Las Vegas, followed by Miami, Orlando, New Orleans, and Houston Intercontinental, in that order translating to almost 112,000 transit passengers.

On the other hand, PAL carried 7% of ‘Los Angeles over Manila’ traffic  to/from Southeast Asia with Denpasar, Indonesia (9,300; 10%), Ho Chi Minh,Vietnam (6,000; 6%), Bangkok, Thailand (5,900; 6%), and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (4,900; 5%), as ultimate destination.

WHY PAL Plans Direct CEB-LAX?

OAG DATA also disclosed that almost 59,000 (60%) of PAL passengers to Manila transited to other Philippine cities, with majority transit traffic heading Cebu, followed by Iloilo, and Davao, Bacolod, and Laoag.

PAL proposed to fly Cebu-Los Angeles and vice versa beginning May 2, 2020 had Covid19 pandemic not intervened in its way. It was supposed to be flown thrice a week with B777-300ER's.