The Philippines has one of the most pristine beaches in the world. A lot of Indian tourists visit the Philippines and the number is increasing every year. But there is no non-stop flight between India and Philippines yet. However, this is now going to change.
First A321neo for Philippine Airlines
Philippine Airlines have a growing fleet of Airbus A321neos, with 4 Airbus A321neos in the fleet already. They have a further 2 A321neos and 15 A321LRs on order. Now, Philippine Airline’s has filled additional international network changes according to Airlineroute.Net. Philippine Airlines will start operations of 4x weekly flights on Manila-New Delhi route from March 31, 2019. The schedule for the flight is,
PR726 MNL0715 – 1235DEL 321 x246
PR727 DEL1335 – 2235MNL 321 x246
Philippine Airlines also has plans to launch flights to Mumbai in the near future.
Manila-Delhi
If you look at it, the flight timings aren’t convenient for tourists visiting the Philippines. It isn’t convenient for connections either. For example, while you may be able to connect to Brisbane from Manila but you can’t connect on the return as it will be a long-long layover. You may be able to book a ticket from Los Angeles to Delhi via Manila with a short layover of 1.10 hours but onwards journey has a long layover.
Another new nonstop destination from New Delhi, to be followed by Mumbai. Who do you think will be the next to launch flights to Delhi then?
Whatever happened to this. All talk no action !
Just to answer the boldface question at the end of Karan’s post, Vietjet should be next in line at DEL from SGN. I can understand why people would be sceptical, given nothing so far, but there seems to be progress in getting this project underway.
IIRC, DEL is now listed in Vietjet’s booking engine, and apparently they are trying to secure appropriate slots there:
http://www.travelbizmonitor.com/Outbound-News/vietnam-hopes-early-resolution-on-vietjets-favourable-timeslot-plea-to-begin-delhi-operations-36558
DEL has been in their booking system since June 2018. Refer to our earlier post.
https://livefromalounge.boardingarea.com/2018/12/06/vietjet-delhi-launch-delayed/
I’m generally not one to be too critical of scheduling–airlines must deal with their own aircraft utilisation and airport slot constraints–but I cannot help but notice that the posted departure times mean that Indian visitors will need to spend TWO EXTRA NIGHTS in hotels while in the Philippines!
By the way, that is the primary target market–Indian visitors to the Philippines. That is based on all the reporting I’ve seen. In their earlier try of MNL-DEL, the market was not yet large enough, and the only plane they could use was the 330–too big. They then added a BKK stop, but that move made the offering meaningless. There are plenty of one-top options.
And, I will add, the schedule is not business pax-friendly either. It would be far better if the timings were shifted 8-12 hours forward in both directions. Yes, like most HKG-India-HKG flights. Dinnertime departure ex-HKG, overnight return.
Everybody and their mother expect this flight–and every flight to/from India–to cater to transfers to their beloved relatives in USA/Aus/Can, but anyone who has been to NAIA would understand why there is much work to do before MNL can become a viable transfer point.
It is also important to understand that Philippines-USA/Can O&D is quite lucrative for PR thanks to the huge volumes of both pax and cargo, and premium they are able to secure from P2P traffic, so they would need to expand operations significantly before becoming interested in transfer traffic.
I would also add that regional transfers, e.g., Sapporo, Brisbane, Taipei, etc. would probably be of far greater interest than transpacific traffic. That is because India-USA/Can fares are typically the same as Philippines-USA/Can fares, and the distance is much greater from India.
They’ll probably adjust the schedule if they get a good load factor and if they see that there’s potential for connections just like they did with their London flights.
I’m surprised there’s a nonstop flight and you’re right the timings aren’t that helpful at all. I’ve flown between Philippines and India in the past and I usually fly either SQ/CX/TG. I actually thought that Cebu Pacific would fly to India nonstop first before PR.
@RNS sorry to hear about your experience as that would really upset me too. I recently flew PR and the service was great.
Thanks for sharing, Karan!
They will have strong competition from CX/KA on the route.
Don’t want to sound pessimistic, but I had a very bad experience with them (not that they are known for their service or anything) on Shanghai – Manila flight few years back.
They refused to acknowledge that AVML is Asian Vegetarian meal (they had served Chicken Masala and called it vegetarian) and while I understand issues happen, and despite reminding them of my return flight (to ensure I could eat something on the flight), they messed up again. On top of that, the whole experience was sour as they were simply not accepting of error. The arrogance was totally unexpected of the good hospitality usually on offer in PH.
Hopefully the above isn’t a representation of their usual service anymore, but I won’t bet on them too much either 😉