Philippine Airlines (PAL) has entered into a code share agreement with Kingfisher Airlines, India’s second largest domestic carrier, that would give it a much bigger footprint in the country.
“We have already made an agreement with Kingfisher,” said Vivienne K Tan, executive vice president, PAL, on Wednesday.
PAL has launched direct flights to India — the only carrier to operate non-stop flights between Delhi and Manila. It will operate three non-stop flights to Delhi and another three via Bangkok. “We are offering the shortest travel time of six-and-a-half hours,” said Jaime J Bautista, president and COO, PAL.
In 2009, two million Indians travelled to Southeast Asia but only 32,817 visited the Philippines, with Singapore (726,000), Thailand (611,983) and Malaysia (589,838) cornering a major chunk of the tourist traffic. PAL is allocating 1,88,000 seats a year on the Indian route.
Tan said PAL would be “interested in investing in an Indian carrier” if the government relaxes rules allowing foreign carriers to invest in Indian airlines.