Philippine Airlines is to launch operations to Seattle – its sixth city in the USA – from October, becoming the latest Asian carrier to fly into the US Pacific Northwest city.
The thrice-weekly flights between Manila and Seattle will be operated by Boeing 777-300ERs, with operations commencing 2 October.
PAL says that the new route will cater to Filipinos visiting friends and family in Washington state, which has the USA’s fourth-largest Filipino population. It will also “simulate business and leisure travel demand” to the Philippines from the USA, the airline adds.
Apart from Seattle, PAL also flies to cities in the USA such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Guam. Its North American network also includes Vancouver and Toronto in Canada.
In recent months, Asian carriers have announced plans to launch operations to Seattle: Taiwan’s China Airlines said it would operate five weekly flights from Taipei starting 14 July, a month before compatriot Starlux, which will also fly between both cities.
Separately, Malaysia Airlines has signed a codeshare partnership agreement with Indian low-cost giant IndiGo.
The memorandum of understanding will see Malaysia Airlines act as the marketing carrier for IndiGo flights into India, while the low-cost operator will have access to Malaysia Airlines’s Southeast Asian network.
“This reciprocal arrangement will allow both carriers to provide seamless connections to their customers, besides enabling them to enjoy an integrated travel itinerary among other facilities,” a joint statement reads.
Malaysia Airlines flies to nine cities in India from Kuala Lumpur, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi and Amritsar. IndiGo only operates Mumbai-Kuala Lumpur flights.
Meanwhile, Qantas resumed operations between Sydney and Port Moresby for the first time in more than 50 years. The Australian carrier now deploys its 737-800s on two weekly flights to the Papua New Guinea capital.
Sydney is the second Australian city with Qantas flights to Port Moresby: the Oneworld carrier also serves it daily from Brisbane.
In Thailand, low-cost operator Thai AirAsia has begun flying between its Bangkok Don Mueang hub and the Japanese island of Okinawa.
The airline began operating four weekly flights on 2 April. Okinawa is the second Japanese city served by the carrier after Fukuoka. Medium-haul associate Thai AirAsia X has flights from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi to Tokyo Narita, Osaka and Sapporo.
Thai AirAsia adds that it is “confident” that travel demand on its Japanese network will hold strong through the year, noting that Japan “remains a top travel destination” for Thai travellers.
Vietnamese low-cost operator Vietjet will expand its Mainland China network with the addition of Xian from 29 April.
The airline will operate four flights a week between Ho Chi Minh city and the northwestern Chinese city. Xian is the latest addition to Vietjet’s Chinese network this year, after Shanghai and Chengdu.
