Philippine Airlines to launch Nagoya flights

Philippine Airlines is to launch a long-awaited service to Nagoya on March 1, 2005, giving the Philippines flag carrier its fifth gateway in Japan.

The service will operate four times weekly, with departures from Manila (PR 438) every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Arrival at the new Central Japan International Airport, just outside Nagoya, is at 6:30 p.m.

The return flight, PR 437, departs Nagoya every Wednesday, Friday, Sunday and Monday at 9:30 a.m., reaching Manila at 12:30 p.m.

Widebody Airbus A330-300 aircraft, which seat 42 in Mabuhay (business) class and 260 in economy, will be deployed on the route.

PAL will be one of the first international carriers to operate from the "Centrair" aviation complex, which is scheduled to open to commercial air traffic on February 17, just 12 days before Philippine Airlines inaugural flight.

The ultra-modern, 24-hour airport is built on a man-made island in Ise Bay about 35 kilometers south of Nagoya.

The facility will be the new hub of the booming Central Japan region, the country's industrial heartland, where high-technology sectors like automotive, machine tools, electronics and aerospace are based. The region is home to many of Japan's manufacturing giants, including Toyota Motor, Noritake and Narumi.

As such, cargo traffic is expected to provide a further revenue stream for the new service.

Brisk leisure traffic is also projected this year, considering that Aichi prefecture, the geographical district to which Nagoya belongs, is the host of the 2005 World Expo. The six-month-long event opens the same month as the PAL service.

Robust tourist flows are likewise expected the other way, as Central Japan is among the leading tourist source markets for the Philippines. As a whole, Japan accounted for over 348,000 visitors to the country in the first 11 months of 2004, second only to the United States.

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