Philippine Airlines | Image Resource : gulf-times.com
Philippine Airlines or PAL is undoubtedly the flag carrier in the Philippines and has its headquarters in Pasay City in the PNB Financial Center. It was originally known as Philippine Air Lines and was established in the year 1941. It holds the credit for being the oldest and first commercial airline functioning in Asia under its actual name.
History of Philippine Airlines
It has its major hubs in Manila at Ninoy Aquino International Airport and Cebu at Mactan Cebu International Airport. Additionally, Philippine Airlines connects to almost 31 different destinations inside the Philippines along with 36 destinations across the globe in East Asia, Oceania, Europe, North America, Middle East and South East Asia.
There was a time when Philippine Airways or PAL used to fall in the list of largest airlines running in Asia. However, the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 left it reeling. PAL had no other option but to cut its wings and reduce its international level operations by entirely stopping flights to Middle East and Europe. The country’s biggest corporate failure also forced the airline company to sack numerous employees, sell out aircrafts and stop almost all domestic flights.
After being taken under receivership in the year 1998, it could slowly regain its operations to various destinations. It came out of receivership nine years later in the year 2007 and was initially managed by the San Miguel Group between 2012 and 2014. It is during this period of time that the Philippine Airways has been successful in taking steps to regain its lost glory.