by Ariel Fernandez

Philippine Airlines (PAL) recently acquired its 7th Boeing 777-300ER and will be accepting delivery of an 8th unit by December, enabling the flag carrier to increase its frequency of flights to North America.

“With additional seats come additional capacity, which now enables PAL to increase frequencies on its transpacific flights to the US Mainland and Canada. Our passengers can now choose from a wider variety of schedules and at the same time, experience service with the heart of the Filipino,” stressed PAL President and COO Jaime J. Bautista.

By next month, PAL will start operating double daily flights between Manila and Los Angeles from the current 10 weekly flights allowing passengers to choose between morning and evening flights.

Flights between Manila and Vancouver will increase from 7 to 10 weekly, while flights between Manila and Toronto will increase from 3 to 4 weekly.

The new acquisitions are part of the airline’s fleet modernization program, which, together with route network expansion and service innovations, is in line with PAL’s vision to be a 5-star, full service national carrier of the Philippines.

The 2 B777s will be Wi-Fi enabled and are equipped with in-seat inflight entertainment, providing passengers a wide selection of movies, music and shows.

The aircraft cabin – with 42 seats on business and 323 on economy — was designed by LIFT Strategic Design, a Tokyo-based studio, headed up by Daniel Baronl, who also designed the cabin for PAL’s first 6 B777-300ERs.