LEGACY carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) is adding more capacity to its Manila-New York flights, shifting the service to Boeing 777-300 from Airbus A340s, to achieve its goal of “efficiently and economically” operating its long-haul flights.
Services with added capacity will start on October 26. Boeing 777s seat 370 passengers, while Airbus A340s can only handle 254. The planes also “ensure consistency across all US Mainland services.” “Using the Boeing 777 to the US Mainland enables us to achieve our goal of operating our long-haul flights efficiently and economically. With this shift, passengers on the route will experience PAL’s trademark Filipino service in the comfort of the modern Boeing 777,” company President and COO Jaime J. Bautista said on Friday.
The Boeing 777-300 ER’s business-class cabin is equipped with individual reading lights, laptop charging port and USB port for passengers to listen to their personal music collection or view photos and files. The seats, which can be adjusted to full flat recline with a 15-degree angle, are outfitted with a 15.4-inch seatback mounted and a 10.6-inch in-arm touchscreen personal television.
Seats on economy class, which have an actuating seat plan enabling the seat-bottom cushion to be moved up or forward to support the body when relaxing, are outfitted with a 9-inch seatback mounted and in-arm touchscreen personal television.
The plane is also equipped with a Wi-Fi service.
At present, PAL utilizes Boeing 777s for its San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Toronto operations, as well as select regional and international routes.
The flag carrier is taking delivery of two additional units, slated to arrive in October and December 2016, respectively.