Commercial flights will resume in Baguio with the Philippine Airlines’ deployment of the 90-seater De Havilland Dash 8 Series 400 next generation aircraft flying the Cebu to Baguio and vice versa route beginning Dec. 16.
The Cebu-Baguio route is the latest addition to PAL’s network of domestic flights connecting the Queen City of the South to various cities in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
The last commercial flight to Baguio was in 2011 connecting Manila and Baguio by Zest Air. For the past 11 years, no commercial airlines flew to Baguio mainly due to lack of passengers to sustain operations and safety of navigation, especially when fog descends at the vicinity of the Loakan airport before noontime.
“This will be PAL’s comeback to the very first destination we served nearly 82 years ago, so we are happy to be flying back to where it all started,” PAL President and Chief Operating Officer Capt. Stanley K. Ng said in a statement posted in the airline’s website. He was referring to its maiden domestic flight in March 1941.
PAL’s operation in Baguio, however, has been irregular due to the second World War and the crash of the Baguio-bound PR206 at Mt. Ugo, Itogon, Benguet, which killed all 50 passengers and crew.
The last attempt to resume commercial flights was in 2018 via chartered flights arranged by MAG Travel and Tours connecting Baguio and Clark International Airport, but the plan never materialized.
PAL will operate four weekly Cebu-Baguio-Cebu flights with departures every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday departing Cebu at 08:50 a.m., arriving at Loakan Airport at 10:50 a.m. and departing Baguio at 11:10 a.m., arriving in Cebu at 1 p.m.
Resumption of commercial flights to Baguio is seen to boost the tourism and other industries not just of Baguio but in adjacent areas in Northern Luzon as the city is considered a jump-off point to nearby destinations in the Cordillera and in Regions 1 and 2. – Rimaliza A. Opiña
April 26, 2024
