MANILA – United Airlines is launching daily non-stop flights from Manila to San Francisco starting October 30.

In a statement, the carrier said they are launching these flights due to requests from customers both in the Philippines and United States.

“With this new nonstop service, we will be able to offer our Manila customers not only the convenient daily nonstop service to San Francisco, but also more than 70 one-stop destinations in the mainland U.S., Canada and Latin America via our hub in San Francisco,” said United’s Regional Director of Sales for Greater China, Korea and Southeast Asia Wally Dias.

The new flight will be the airline’s first-ever trans-Pacific service from Manila since the airline started its Manila operation in 1982.

The first westbound flight from SFO to MNL will depart on October 29.

Flight UA190 will leave Manila in the morning daily and will arrive in San Francisco in the early morning the same day. The return flight, UA191, will leave US around midnight daily and will arrive in Manila in the early morning two days later for most of the winter season.

All flights will use the B777-300ER aircraft, which offers 60 seats in the business class, 24 seats in the premium cabin, and 266 seats in economy.

For its part, Philippine Airlines (PAL) said it welcomes competition on transpacific routes, saying it is a sign of “the strength and vitality of the air travel market between the Philippines and the United States.”

“PAL has always embraced healthy competition among different players across our network,” their statement read.

PAL said it operates 37 weekly flights to the US, including double daily flights to Los Angeles, daily flights each to San Francisco and Guam, and several weekly flights to New York and Honolulu.

• PAL books P7.4 billion operating income in Q1

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