Philippine Airlines will launch direct flights to New Zealand later this year, reducing the current travelling time between Manila and Auckland by more than two hours.

The national carrier currently operates the route via Cairns. But from 6 December 2017, PAL will commence thrice weekly non-stop services between the Philippine capital and New Zealand’s largest city. Services will depart Manila every Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday at 2315 and arrive in Auckland at 1405 the following day.

The return flights then take off from Auckland every Friday, Saturday and Tuesday at 0030 and land back in Manila at 0545.

The new non-stop service will take approximately 10 hours, compared to the 12 hours 15 minutes it currently takes to operate the route via Cairns. In addition, PAL will deploy its 254-seat Airbus A340 on the route, increasing seat capacity by 63% compared to the 156-seat Airbus A321 that it currently operates to Auckland.

The introduction of Manila-Auckland flights will lead to the suspension of PAL’s Cairns service. Passengers with confirmed tickets for Cairns following the suspension will be able to re-route to Darwin, Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney and connect to Cairns via another airline.