PAL to reinstate Cebu-Los Angeles flight route this May

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines will once again have its nonstop Cebu-Los Angeles flight starting this May. 

In a press release on Tuesday, January 21, PAL said this flight is the “only direct air link between the Visayas and Mainland USA.” 

Residents of various cities in the Visayas and Mindanao will enjoy convenient connections via Cebu for their travels to Los Angeles.

The new service will help boost Philippine tourism, as U.S.-based leisure and business travelers can now avail of the fastest and easiest travel option: a single flight nonstop to the Queen City of the South. Currently, the other options to fly to Cebu from the U.S. involve transfer flight connections via other Asian airports or Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila.

The service marks PAL’s comeback to the Cebu-Los Angeles route as it previously operated Cebu-LAX flights from March 2016 up to May 2017.    

The airline is touting that Cebu will be a hub for many tourists to transfer to connecting flights to Siargao, Camiguin, Davao, Boracay, Coron, Bacolod, Iloilo and other fabled holiday destinations for some sun and sea recreation and other nature adventures. 

The launch of the new service will increase PAL’s network offering to a total of 64 flights weekly to the U.S., Canada and the U.S. territory of Guam.  

PAL’s Cebu-Los Angeles flights will depart three times weekly for Los Angeles from the new Terminal 2 of the Mactan Cebu International Airport, utilizing PAL’s largest aircraft, the 370 seater Boeing 777-300ER. 

Starting from May 2, 2020, PAL Flight PR152 (CEB-LAX) will depart Cebu at 9 p.m. every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and arrive in Los Angeles at 7:30 p.m. on the same days. For the LAX-CEB journey, PR 153 will leave Los Angeles at 11PM every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, touching down two days later in Cebu at 5 a.m. after a 14-hour nonstop flight. 

The latest-version PAL B777 features a fully-flat bed in business class, with an 18.4-inch TV screen, retractable privacy dividers, an ottoman which doubles as a storage area, and in-seat power and USB ports. Economy class features a seat pitch of up to 34 inches, and each seat is equipped with 11-inch TV screens and USB ports.

“We look forward to treating our customers to the fastest flights between the U.S. Mainland and the Visayas / Mindanao region, via PAL’s new Cebu-LAX route.  Our upcoming service from Cebu to LA is a vivid demonstration of our commitment to build up Mactan Cebu as a global aviation hub, a dynamic gateway, not only to domestic points, but to major international destinations,” said PAL President and COO Gilbert Santa Maria. “Los Angeles and the USA now joins Tokyo, Osaka, Bangkok, Nagoya and Seoul in the list of PAL overseas destinations served from Cebu.”

As part of PAL’s 2020 New Year Sale, the airline is offering promo fares for flights between Cebu and Los Angeles for as low as $420 (base rate) exclusive of government taxes. Booking period for this special offering is from January 20 until January 24. Travel period is from July 1 to December 10, 2020.

PAL is the largest airline operator in the Philippines-North America market, featuring all-nonstop flights to and from Los Angeles and San Francisco in the U.S. West Coast, New York (JFK Airport) in the U.S. East Coast, Honolulu in Hawaii and both Toronto and Vancouver in Canada. 

The flag carrier also announced the inauguration of several international routes, including the first-ever nonstop flights between Manila and Perth (starting March 30);  Zamboanga and Kota Kinabalu (from March 29); and between Davao and Manado (from March 29).