Philippine Airlines introduces premium economy on A330s

Philippine Airlines has started to reconfigure its Airbus A330-300 aircraft with a new three-class layout, which includes the introduction of its new premium economy class.

The national carrier previously packed 414 seats into its twin-aisle A330s, in an all-economy class layout. But in an effort to appeal to a broader range of customers, including the more lucrative premium sector, this configuration has now been switched to 309 seats in three cabins: business, premium economy and economy.

These reconfigured A330s entered service for the first time this week on the Manila-Honolulu route, and will be progressively introduced on services to Melbourne and Sydney in July and August respectively, then Singapore in September, Tokyo Haneda in October, Narita in November and Osaka in December.

“In Philippine Airlines, we aim to please. This inspired us to go through the process of providing our passengers a reconfigured aircraft with meticulous seat and IFE selection. As we journey on to becoming a five-star, world-class, full-service carrier… we devote our efforts towards meeting customer needs,” said PAL’s president & chief operating officer, Jaime Bautista.

PAL’s revamped A330s come equipped with 18 business class seats, which recline to form fully-flat, 198cm-long beds, plus 24 premium economy class seats with 97cm of legroom and 267 economy class seats with an 81cm pitch. All seats come equipped with in-flight entertainment, USB ports and power sockets, plus access to in-flight Wi-Fi.

Eventually, PAL plans to configure all 15 of its A330s with the new three-class layout. This will allow the national carrier to differentiate itself from its main rival, Cebu Pacific, which squeezes 436 economy class seats into its A330-300s. PAL previously introduced premium economy onto its single-aisle A321 aircraft.