CLARK FREEPORT – Suspended at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Philippine Airlines relaunched its Clark International Airport-Basco (Batanes) service on Tuesday, July 2, with a fully booked flight.
“It gives us great pride to meet the demand for flights out of Central Luzon, a strategic gateway to Northern, Central and Southern Philippines. Today, we celebrate the return of our Clark-Basco service, a most sought-after domestic route, which allows Basco residents to access opportunities for leisure travel and discover other beautiful attractions across the country,” enthused PAL Express president Rabbi Vincent Ang.
are (L-R) PAL VP Sales Salvador Britanico, PAL VP Corporate Affairs Anne Tiongco,
BCDA VP for Investment Promotions Erwin Kenneth Peralta, DOT Region 3
director Richard Daenos, CDC P/CEO Agnes VST Devanadera, LIPAD P/CEO Noel
Manankil, PAL Express president Rabbi Vincent Ang, PAL Express VP Aircraft
Engineering Romulo Raras, PAL VP Fleet and Network Planning Christoph
Gaertner, VP Revenue Management Alex Featherstone, AVP Philippine Sales
Bryan Sansolis, and PAL Area Head Central Luzon Pedrito Dimaculangan. Photo by
Bong Lacson
“This returning service also allows Central Luzon residents, business and leisure travelers to fly to picturesque Basco.”
The PAL Clark-Basco route operates four times weekly (every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday) via PR2688, departing CRK at 11 a.m., and arriving in Basco at 12:35 p.m.
The Basco-Clark service via PR2689 operates on the same days, leaving Basco at 1 p.m., and touching down in CRK at 2:35 p.m.
PAL uses a De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 NG aircraft to service the route.
The direct service to picturesque Basco complements PAL’s daily Manila-Basco service.
“From Clark, we also operate daily flights to Cebu, thrice weekly flights to Caticlan (Boracay), and four times weekly flights to Busuanga (Coron). We are optimizing our operations out of Manila and Cebu and we will progressively work on more flights out of Clark,” Ang explained.
CRK has a large catchment area as it covers Central Luzon as well as North Luzon. Aside from having the opportunity to enjoy direct flights out of Clark, travelers can connect to other domestic destinations via the PAL Cebu hub and vice versa.
The PAL Group remains focused on fleet growth, route network expansion and service innovation through digitalization initiatives. To sustain the gains that have been achieved, PAL is focusing on key investments that will serve as key drivers towards an enhanced customer service, increased fleet, and network capacity.
Aside from the PAL executives, also present during the relaunching ceremonies held at Gate 6 of CRK were Clark Development Corp. president and CEO Atty. Agnes VST Devanadera, Luzon International Premier Airport Development Corp. president Noel Manankil, and Department of Tourism Region 3 director Dr. Richard Daenos. Punto News Team/PR
