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19 July 2023
US carrier United Airlines (United) announced that it is flying back to Manila starting October 29 with direct daily flights to San Francisco using Boeing 777-300ER aircraft which offers 60 seats in the business class, 24 seats in the premium cabin, and 266 seats in economy.
United flight UA191 will depart San Francisco at 12:30am arriving Manila's Terminal 3 at 6:30am. Return flight UA 190 shall depart at 9:55am arriving San Francisco at 7:20am.
United SVP of Global Network Planning and Alliances Patrick Quayle during a July 17 media briefing said there is a “ton of traffic”
between the U.S. and the Philippines. “All that traffic has to connect
somewhere, or that traffic has to fly the Filipino flag-carrier.”
The carrier currently operates flights to Manila with Boeing 737-800 narrow bodies from Guam and Palau’s Koror Airai Airport.
According to Quayle, the airline application to fly Manila has been five years in the making until it was approved by Philippine regulators.
The airline flew nonstop B747-400 service between San Francisco and Manila until Feb. 20, 1998 due to the Asian Financial crisis which struck Southeast Asia in 1997 causing massive losses for its operations in the Philippines. It also flew Seattle and New York via stop overs in Seoul and Osaka until 2002 when it applied for Chapter 11 protection.
The new flight will be the airline’s first-ever trans-Pacific service from Manila since the airline started its Manila operation in 1985 after taking over operations of Pan American Airways.
See United Airlines story in the Philippines here.
PAL and UA may have met a compromise regarding UA's protest about PAL wanting to launch flights to SEA. I'm glad there will now be competition on this route although UA's 777-300ER economy seats are a bit tight at 31" pitch, while PAL's, while also 3-4-3, is at 34". I also really hope that PAL will reconsider retaining the 3-3-3 layout for their A350-1000 economy as media reports they intend on 3-4-3 layout. While Airbus may now have made modifications in the A350 cabin to allow 3-4-3 economy layout at 17" seat width, the overall cabin is still narrower than the 777's. Also, seat manufacturers tend to cheat in retaining 17" seat width by reducing the width of the armrests. It is still very tight. Imagine seating on this plane on an ultra long haul flight to JFK. I understand that Filipinos are price-sensitive, but it will be a matter of time when they start demanding quality especially when there are competitors. If PAL retains 3-3-3 layout for A350-1000 it will only be a slight reduction from 380 seats. If only they chose the Boeing 777X, then 3-4-3 layout wont be a problem because Boeing also made changes in the cabin to allow 3-4-3 but now at a comfortable 18" seat width instead of the old 777's 17.2" width. The 777X would have been the perfect replacement for PAL's 747-400.
ReplyDeleteAlso interesting that starting October 29, KLM will cease flights to MNL, thus ending our only remaining direct connection to Europe. But there is already talk of launching direct flights to CDG courtesy of the French ambassador to the Philippines. Maybe Air France and CDG will simply replace KLM and AMS.
ReplyDeleteNope. Aeroroutes have different story otherwise. They're resuming Taipei as a stopover. The Kuala Lumpur stopover is being tagged to Jakarta beginning October 30th.
DeleteKLM will only cease the stopover to KUL as it resumes the stopover via TPE
ReplyDeleteI hope United opens a United Club here in Manila and close those local lounges (PAGSS and MIASCOR) as they are not on par in delivering a world class airline lounge.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I hope that all international flights move to Terminal 3. All boarding bridges must be utilise with the exception of single narrow body aircraft. All LCC carriers will prioritize in using remote gates and full service airlines will be distributed accordingly. All US/Canada flights can use the gates towards the end of the hall (I think gates 107) since they require secondary inspection to minimize choke points. They will also need to minimize the number of merchants selling local pasalubongs/handicraft since they are the reason the airport looks like a "talipapa". This stuff can be purchased outside at a cheaper price. They could construct a building on top of the open parking area in front of the terminal to accommodate well wishers and only allow passengers whose flight departure is within 6 hours to enter the main terminal building to avoid over capacity and onlookers. Immigration hall should be updated to have separate lanes for Cabin Crew/Diplomats/APEC, Priority lane for First/Business class passengers, Foreign passport and Filipino. They should also install more e-gates to ensure expedited clearance. Also, they should remove access to the "mall area" to pre security passengers. They should install escalators to access this area post security.
Likewise, at the arrival area, they should remove multiple sellers of sim cards and real estate as these are considered eyesore. They should also add international ATM machines (ex HSBC) to accommodate foreigners who are not inclined to withdraw money from local ATMs.
They should also update the signage around the terminal since the color and font does not match.
Lastly, they could assign Terminal 2 to local destinations that have high traffic (Cebu, Kalibo, Davao, Caticlan, etc.) regardless of airline and other domestic destinations at Terminal 1. Terminal 4 will handle all turbo prop aircrafts.
They should also invest in buses that will shuttle passengers between terminals but they will be driven inside the airport complex to minimize traffic (only to those who are on same-day connecting flights).