Seattle, Washington--Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) is planning to expand the market for its new Manila-Seattle direct flights from its base of businessmen and overseas Filipinos and to include travelers to Asian destinations.

“We are not just targeting the Filipino community, but it's also introducing the Philippines to the rest of the world. To go mainstream. We want them to go to the Philippines for the tourist attraction also,” said PAL President Capt. Stanley K. Ng. in a media briefing.

He noted that, “there's so much businesses here (Seattle). We have the headquarters of Amazon, Microsoft, Starbucks, Boeing, Nordstrom, and even Costco.”

For the Filipino community, Ng said the direct flight offers them convenience as it cuts down travel to Manila to 14 hours from 20 hours if they take a connecting flight.

He noted that since a direct flight is seamless it also gives them the convenience of not losing their baggage during transit (when changing flights). 

Meanwhile, PAL Vice President for Sales Salvador C. Britanico Jr. said that, while the newly-launched Manila-Seattle route already has a load factor of 80 percent to 90 percent, they still intend to grow this market by making Seattle a transit point from Manila and Manila a transit point from Seattle to Asian destinations.

“We have a good partner here, Alaska Air. We also have passengers connecting via American Airlines and as well as Delta. So, Alaska Air, they fly to more than 100 destinations from here. So, it's good connectivity for us because when you land, immediately you can connect to other parts of the US and even Canada,” he noted. 

Britanico added that there is also potential the other way around, “from interior US connecting here. And then also, we'll have passengers that can access Southeast Asia from here. So Seattle to Bangkok (via Manila), since we have good connections. Vietnam, Bangkok, even other parts of Asia.”

However, he said they are also providing a new and closer route to “a substantial critical mass of Filipinos” since “the state of Washington has about 180,000 Filipinos. For the Pacific Northwest, close to 300,000 Filipinos. So, when we launched the flights, many of our passengers actually for the first time in many years also taking trips back to the Philippines, to Manila because it is now more convenient for them.”

Aside from Filipinos living in the US, Britanico said there is also a huge market among seafarers since there are many cruise ships departing from Seattle.

“So, we also transport a lot of Filipino seafarers and also those taking tours. The Port of Seattle is one of the major gateways for Filipino seafarers. Many of the workers on the big cruise ships are actually Filipinos coming from the Philippines. So that's one traffic especially during the summer when cruise season starts,” he said.