Philippine Airlines plans Mumbai flights

Philippine Airlines wants to resume its flights to Mumbai, India, but the country’s flag carrier needs to first secure the landing rights for a commercial stopover in Bangkok, Thailand.
“We want to fly back to Mumbai in India, but the problem is the landing rights,” PAL president Jaime Bautista said in an interview on Friday during the induction of officers of the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines at the Filipinas Heritage in Makati.
Asia’s first airliner, which launched its inaugural flight on March 15, 1941, PAL is now in talks with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines to negotiate with Bangkok for the landing rights.
According to Bautista, however, the issue goes beyond the landing rights, as PAL also needs to make the route profitable by being able to pick up passengers from Bangkok to Mumbai and on the return flight from Bangkok to Manila.
“There is demand there,” he said. “Hopefully, we can fly there within the year.”
The airliner now sees the Manila-Bangkok-Mumbai route a lucrative business with the influx of Indian tourists flying to Manila and Cebu. The carrier stopped flying to India in the 1950s.
But the route would be costly if PAL would not be able to book passengers from Bangkok, which would then be rendered a non-commercial stopover. PAL could not fly directly to Mumbai, as it would have to offset the cost of the long-haul service, Bautista said.
22/02/10 Jeremiah F. de Guzman/Manila Standard Today, Philippines

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Categories: Foreign Feb 2010