THE façade of the Iloilo International Airport. (Tara Yap)
ILOILO CITY – Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) will study the viability of proposed direct international flights between Iloilo and Guam, an island territory of the United States in the Pacific.
“This has to be studied,” said PAL Head of Philippine Sales Bryan Ang, following the launching of direct flights from Cebu to Guam and vice versa on Dec. 16.
PAL has been ramping up its Visayas connectivity for the Guam flights including its operations at Iloilo International Airport.
Ang said that he was unaware of the proposal by the American Association of Western Visayas (AAWV).
In December 2018, AAWV President Capt. Nelson Ynion asked the Iloilo provincial government to endorse the proposal for Iloilo-Guam flights to the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
Ynion has long said that there are economic and tourism opportunities not only for Iloilo but also for the rest of Western Visayas region if there are international flights to Guam.
Ang reiterated that PAL has to look at marketability for direct international flights like what it has been doing to domestic flights.
The Iloilo International Airport currently caters flights to and from Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand by budget airline Cebu Pacific and Scoot, a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines.