PAL downgrades Canadian routes

The latest published airline schedules reveal that Philippine Airlines is planning to downgrade its Canadian routes, reports the Philippine Flight Network.

The airline currently operates a daily flight to Vancouver with three weekly flights that continue from Vancouver on to Toronto using a Boeing 777 aircraft. However, the airline plans to downgrade its Canadian routes to the A340 beginning in September.

After the Philippines regained Category 1 status from the US Federal Aviation Administration, the airline revealed plans to deploy its Boeing 777 fleet to San Francisco and Los Angeles. PAL deployed its 777 fleet on a daily service to Los Angeles on May 4 with four weekly 777 flights to San Francisco scheduled to commence on July 1.

The Boeing 777 aircraft currently operates PAL routes to London Heathrow, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, and Toronto. But the six 777 aircraft in the Philippine Airlines fleet are insufficient to completely cover all of the flights operated to these destinations. As PAL retires the Boeing 747 from its last three remaining weekly flights to San Francisco at the end of August, the Boeing 777 will be redeployed from Canadian routes to cover the daily San Francisco flight.

The Boeing 777 aircraft is the flagship of the Philippine Airlines fleet featuring 370 seats in a bi-class configuration with lie-flat seats in Business Class and personal in-flight entertainment throughout the entire aircraft. The much older 254-seat A340-300 aircraft also has a bi-class configuration but lacks the modern amenities of the Boeing 777. Philippine Airlines recently acquired these aircraft used from Spanish carrier Iberia in a leasing arrangement with Airbus. The aircraft has the old recliner style Business Class seats and "main screen" in-flight entertainment. 

The A340-300 flights will begin on September 1. Canadian passengers embarking in Toronto will likely be disappointed that they must endure an older aircraft with main screen entertainment for a journey that exceeds 15 hours. For Vancouver bound flights, PR116 will depart four times weekly at 7:00pm arriving in Vancouver at 4:15pm. The return flight, PR117 will depart Vancouver at 11:45pm, arriving back in Manila at 4:35am (+2). For Toronto bound flights, PR118 departs Manila three times weekly at 3:00pm, arriving in Vancouver at 12:15pm, and continuing onto Toronto at 1:45pm. The aircraft finally touches down in Toronto at 9:05pm. The return flight, PR119, departs Toronto for Vancouver at 10:35pm. It arrives in Vancouver at 12:35am (+1) before departing back to Manila at 1:50am. The flight touches down in Manila at 6:40am (+2).

Philippine Airlines is likely timing the downgrading of its Canadian routes to the end of the busy summer season. Summer in the northern hemisphere extends through August and is a time when many overseas Filipinos residing in Canada and the United States return home to visit friends and relatives. There are currently 33,000 Filipinos that hold permanent resident visas in Canada, with Tagalog declared as the fastest growing foreign language group in Canada. Trade between the Philippines and Canada recently climbed to $1.7 billion. Canada was one of the first countries to respond to the Super Typhoon Haiyan disaster donating $85 million in aid.