Closure of the PAL Baguio-Cebu route threatened

BAGUIO CITY – National carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) is preparing to suspend its 17-month-long test Baguio-Cebu-Baguio route during the monsoon season, but local tourism officials say this should not affect visitor numbers in the summer capital.

“PAL informed us and the mayor (Benjamin Magalong) much earlier, so we expected (the suspension),” Aloysius Mapalo, the city’s tourism officer, told the Inquirer on Friday.

City Administrator Bonifacio dela Peña made the same announcement during a press conference on May 16, but said it was only a temporary measure and could be resumed after the rainy season ends.

However, reports recently surfaced online that flights providing direct passenger and cargo service between Baguio and the Visayas would be suspended until July 1.

So far, no such announcements have been made on the official PAL websites and social media accounts.

Stage area

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and 67 other Cebu passengers flew to Loakan Airport in Baguio on December 16, 2022, in a PAL turboprop aircraft to officially inaugurate the maiden flight and restart an airport that had not seen commercial operations since 2012.

While the transportation authorities carried out gradual rehabilitation and modernization programs, Loakan served as a staging area for emergency operations and was occupied by military aircraft of the Philippine Air Force.

Jovita Ganongan, director of the Cordillera Tourism Department, previously said the flights should not only facilitate travel but also open up potential markets for vegetables and rice grown in the region, as well as mangoes, durian and processed goods produced in the Visayas and Mindanao.

“The PAL flights actually represent only a small percentage of our total visitor numbers, but (travel to Cebu) is a niche market that we hope to grow,” Mapalo said.

“During our deployment here, we had a large number of visitors from the Viasayas and even foreigners entering the country through the Mactan-Cebu International Airport,” he said.

Mapalo estimated that more than 500,000 tourists had visited Baguio as of May, based on the city’s annual tourism average of 1.5 million.

At a tourism summit on April 2, Leonard Bryan Sansolis, head of PAL’s sales division in the Philippines, said they flew a total of 12,576 passengers to Baguio and Cebu and extended their special offers to Mindanao.