PAL to resume flights to Xiamen, China starting Jan. 2023

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) on Friday announced the resumption of its flight between Manila and Xiamen, China next month.

In an advisory, PAL said its Manila-Xiamen will resume beginning on January 13, 2023.

This would mark the flag carrier’s reopening of its scheduled service to mainland China almost three years after the service was paused due to COVID-related border restrictions.

Starting with one flight per week, operating every Friday, the PAL route to Xiamen will build up frequencies over time, in line with the easing of restrictions and applicable government authorizations, it said.

“The reopening of our Manila-Xiamen service is a happy development as we welcome the new year, and a good start for the restoration of our flights to and from the Chinese mainland. Philippine Airlines is continuously working towards flying back to more cities in China, with our goal of operating the largest network of flights between the Philippines and multiple cities in mainland China,” said PAL vice president for Sales Bud Britanico.

“Moving forward, we are excited to serve more customers and strengthen the warm and friendly relations that unite the Chinese and Filipino people,” said Britanico.

From January 13, PAL will offer one flight per week between Manila and Xiamen.

Below is the full schedule:

• PR 330 Manila-Xiamen – every Friday departing Manila at 07:30 a.m., arriving in Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport at 09:55 a.m.
• PR 331 Xiamen-Manila – every Friday departing Xiamen Gaoqi at 11:55 a.m., arriving in Manila at 02:30 p.m.

The flag carrier said it will deploy Airbus A330-300 aircraft on the Xiamen route.

During the pandemic, PAL said operated a series of authorized regular charter flights to Nanjing (from July 2020 to September 2022), Hangzhou (August 2022 to September 2022), Tianjin (from July 2022 to August 2022) and Wuhan (from August 2022 to present), while scheduled services on the airline’s regular routes were suspended.

Before the start of the COVID-19 closures, the airline had previously served 5 cities in China, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Quanzhou (Jinjiang). — RSJ, GMA Integrated News