NATIONAL carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) said Cebu headlines the list of local destinations that it will promote in international road shows.
PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said the airline is "100-percent committed" to sell Cebu in its 26 international destinations including selected points in its domestic network.
PAL flies eight times a day between Manila and Cebu using mostly wide-body jets like the Boeing 777ER, B747-400 and the Airbus A330.
These planes carry at least 300 passengers.
The flag carrier also flies directly from Cebu to Narita, Japan six times weekly and thrice a week to Incheon, South Korea.
Effective December 2, flights to Incheon will double to six times weekly.
Data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) show that Cebu attracted 473,133 foreign visitors in the first eight months of 2011, up 16.26 percent from 406,955 people during the same period last year.
"Cebu continues to enjoy positive load factors despite the recent tsunami in Japan and other natural calamities. In fact, even during the height of PAL’s spin off/outsourcing program, flights to Cebu were largely unaffected with load factors of more than 80 percent," Glenn Vallecera, PAL assistant vice president for sales in the Visayas, said.
Around 206 employees at the Mactan International Airport were retrenched last month after PAL outsourced its catering, passenger handling and call center reservation departments.
PAL’s intensified tourism promotion campaign comes on the heels of its restoration of flights and frequencies to pre-outsourcing levels.
Last Thursday, all PAL flights began to depart and arrive at its exclusive hub at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2.
Prior to October 1, the effectivity date of PAL’s outsourcing program, some flights were temporarily housed at NAIA Terminal 3 to decongest the Centennial Terminal.
On Wednesday, PAL resumed full in-flight meal service after a brief interruption caused by the transition to third party service providers and the protest camp of former PAL workers at the airline's in-flight center in Pasay City.
PAL’s cargo operations on both domestic and international flights also returned to normal levels.
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