Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — The Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) in Kingdom hailed the expansion plan and growth strategy of their country flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) as it endeavors to improve it services. The OFWs in Saudi Arabia have high hopes on PAL as it entered into the Kingdom after a long gap, yet it is on top in terms of passenger growth as OFWs endorse "Heart of Filipino", the theme of airlines. "We launched weekly three flights from Riyadh to Manila in end of 2013, but within short span, with increased demand, we expanded to daily flight in the sector. In Dammam, we also increased the flight frequency to five flights a week," said Ricky Solomon L. Pacquing, country manager for Saudi Arabia of Philippine Airlines. Addressing the OFW community and travel agents on Thursday night, he told that PAL operates presently 3 flights a week to Manila from Jeddah and likely to increase later. Pacquing said after the omission of Dubai last month as transit point for Jeddah - Manila sector, there is increasing demand from the community. Now Jeddah - Manila flight operates directly without stopover, departing in Jeddah at 3:40 p.m., with 11 hours flying duration, he added. The country manager further said "Philippine Airlines will not only increase the frequency of flights, but will also add other destinations apart of Manila in the future in Jeddah - Manila sector." He told that Philippine Airlines will also consider to expand Jeddah - Manila route up to Clark in the near future when he terminal expansion in Clark is over. The Philippine government is developing airports in Cebu in the southern part and Clark in the northern part of the country. Moreover, Pacquing said that due to increased demand from the travelers, PAL is set to introduce business class in PAL flights operating from Riyadh in August, Dammam in September and Jeddah in October, when delivery of new version of Airbus 330-300 aircraft would be completed. He said that new aircraft would be equipped with state of communication and entertainment system, where passenger can switch their own devices to the system and also have telephone roaming facility. "Philippine Airlines accords high priority in its Gulf sector routes, where we operate flights to Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai and Kuwait as these destinations hosting large number of OFWs," he added. Pacquing told the gathering that PAL operates flights to a total of 44 international and 30 domestic destinations. PAL official described that one trip is not enough to explore the natural beauty of the country having 7,641 islands, with each island having its own natural beauty and panoramic scenes. Prominent community member and director for social and cultural affairs at AOMEA Rany P. Constantino presented a plaque of appreciation to Pacquing for his efforts to outreach the community. Later raffle draw was held in which long time OFW, Alex Domingo who works in OCL has won free ticket for Jeddah-Manila-Jeddah round trip. Consul RJ Sumague, Syed Hamid Nayeem, GSA Manager for PAL, Ibrahim Makkawi, station manager PAL, Jeddah and several leading travel agents were present.
