MANILA, Philippines – Australian carrier Qantas will increase flights between Manila and Sydney to 5 times a week during the holiday season.
Qantas International CEO Gareth Evans said the Manila-Sydney route is experiencing strong demand from customers.
"We're pleased to add to the seasonal services we’re set to operate from Asia later this year, with the 5th weekly Manila flight again representing the dynamic nature of our network, which has the flexibility to offer our customers more flights during peak seasons," Evans said.
Schedule
Qantas said in a statement on Thursday, September 10, that the 5th weekly Manila-Sydney service will operate on Sundays from December 6 to March 20 next year.
Timings differs from Qantas' year-round services to Manila, which operate 4 days per week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
The Australian carrier said it sought regulatory approval to operate the 5th weekly service permanently beyond the Northern Winter scheduling season.
Qantas also announced that it will add 4 new Hong Kong-Sydney services per week starting October 26.
This is on top of the current daily services available from Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.
The new services follow an additional 140 international services recently announced to operate to Singapore, Jakarta, and New Zealand over the upcoming summer holiday season.
The new Manila-Sydney services will be available for sale next week, Qantas said.
Qantas said in its 2014 financial report that it registered AU$557 million ($409 million) net profit, a sharp recovery from the AU$2.84 billion ($1.99 billion) net loss in 2013.
The airline attributed the turnaround mainly to its cost-cutting program, which had helped Qantas save AU$894 million over the year and allowed it to pay its debt. – Chrisee Dela Paz/Rappler.com
$1 = AU$1.42