Travelers will soon have more flight options as an international airline opens a direct route between Manila and San Francisco.
United Airlines Regional Director Wally Dias tells us more.
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United Airlines Regional Director Wally Dias tells us more.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Travelers will soon have more flight options as an international carrier opens a direct route between Manila and San Francisco.
00:09 United Airlines Regional Director for Gator China, Korea and Southeast Asia, Wally Dias,
00:17 joins us now to tell us more about this new route between Manila and San Francisco.
00:21 Hey Wally, great to have you with us.
00:23 Hello Rico, and it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having us.
00:25 Together with Polaris Bear.
00:27 Ready to fly front cabin.
00:30 Direct from San Francisco to Manila and vice versa.
00:32 So why did United decide to start this new service?
00:35 So I think, you know, as we look at three years of people being travel restricted,
00:41 I think that Americans have caught the international travel bug.
00:46 And so we see a lot of international travel demand that's really exploding across the world.
00:55 And so we see, we listen to our customers first and they're telling us they want to travel internationally.
01:01 And so Philippines was one of the larger markets that we weren't serving in Asia.
01:06 So we wanted to jump into the market.
01:09 And how long, Wally, was this in the works?
01:12 So, you know, we look at these markets on a continuous basis.
01:16 So it's been in the works for quite a while.
01:18 But the conditions are right for it to start now.
01:22 And how significant is this Trans-Pacific service between Manila and San Francisco and back to Manila?
01:28 I think it's very significant for our customers.
01:31 You know, we're the largest international airline in the world.
01:35 And we have a large customer base in the United States.
01:39 And they're really looking for new places to explore.
01:43 After pandemic, people are really looking for adventure and getting out and seeing the world.
01:49 And that's what we're seeing.
01:51 You know, we put Manila on the route map and we see the customers.
01:55 So, Wally, you say that you were listening to your customers.
01:57 Are most of these customers Filipino-Americans who have a large community in the United States
02:04 who just want to visit their relatives back in the Philippines?
02:08 Or are we seeing a lot of non-Filipino-Americans who also want to see what the Philippines can offer?
02:16 Yeah, I think it's both.
02:18 There's 4.2 Filipino-Americans in this country.
02:22 So that's a big part of the demand.
02:24 Millions, right? Millions of Filipinos in the West Coast.
02:27 But we also have hundreds of millions of customers that just want to go travel internationally.
02:32 And that's what we're seeing in this move for Asia Pacific.
02:38 And it also shows the potential of the Philippines as a tourism destination.
02:44 Our numbers are really growing exponentially.
02:47 We're now seeing 3 million foreign travelers coming to the Philippines,
02:52 which could increase, could double by years end.
02:55 Right. Through July, I think Americans coming to the Philippines was about 580,000.
03:01 So that's within about 14 percent of 2019 numbers, which were the highest.
03:07 So we do see a rebound in travel and we're very excited about it.
03:11 What is the schedule of the San Francisco-Manila route and Manila back to San Francisco?
03:17 So it's a daily service, leaving here at 9.55 a.m., arriving early in the morning in San Francisco.
03:24 And the great thing about that is it allows us to connect to about 70 destinations around the United States.
03:32 So it's, you know, the San Francisco hub is the largest gateway for Asia Pacific for the United States.
03:41 And so the power of San Francisco will really help us grow the Philippine market from the U.S.
03:48 And that will be the edge of United Airlines vis-a-vis, of course, the main competitor, which is Philippine Airlines,
03:56 which currently dominates that Manila-San Francisco and San Francisco route.
04:01 I mean, they have a monopoly right now.
04:04 Sure.
04:05 Are you, what are your plans, let's say, for the first three months of the year?
04:10 Because you're starting this flight October the 30th.
04:13 How much do you plan to eat into Philippine Airlines' market?
04:16 Well, I think it's really going to grow the market incrementally.
04:20 So, again, we have a large customer base in the United States that want to travel around the world.
04:26 We're the largest airline between the U.S. and Asia.
04:29 And so this is just a perfect addition to that route map.
04:33 And so we really do believe that this is going to build traffic to the Philippines from the U.S.
04:39 All right.
04:41 What new product and service offerings will you be putting on the table for passengers from Manila to San Francisco and back?
04:52 What new service offerings that will give you the edge over Philippine Airlines?
04:57 Well, I think we offer Polaris, the front cabin product for United Airlines.
05:02 And it's a really great product.
05:03 It's one of the premier products in the world.
05:06 And it's not just about on the aircraft itself.
05:09 It's also about the whole journey from the airport all the way to your destination.
05:15 So we have the Polaris Lounge in San Francisco with about 28,000 square feet of space.
05:21 It's a fantastic facility that I think our customers will love when they try out this product.
05:27 All right.
05:28 Polaris, we will see you soon.
05:30 Really a top product for United International.
05:34 Okay.
05:35 I mean, you're boasting about your Polaris Lounge in San Francisco.
05:37 Will there be also a Polaris Lounge here at the Manila International Airport, at the Nino Yaquino International Airport?
05:44 Not at the moment, but we'll have to look into that in the future.
05:47 But where will the United Airlines flight arrive?
05:55 Which terminal?
05:56 Is it terminal one or three?
05:59 Terminal three.
06:00 Terminal three.
06:01 Okay.
06:02 And we've been serving the Manila market for over 40 years now.
06:06 That's right, via Hong Kong.
06:07 So we have Guam to Manila and also Palau to Manila.
06:12 So we've been actually flying out of terminal three during this time.
06:16 So it's been the U.S. to Guam and then Manila.
06:19 It's not from the U.S., Hong Kong to Manila.
06:22 No.
06:23 Okay.
06:24 All right.
06:25 So we have Hawaii, Guam, Manila.
06:28 That's all connected.
06:29 And then also the Palau service.
06:31 The Guam flight is daily service as well.
06:34 So it's going to be a great addition to our product here.
06:39 I'm just curious because Philippine Airlines also has a direct flight to Los Angeles.
06:44 Why did you decide to choose San Francisco and not Los Angeles for this direct flight?
06:49 So San Francisco is really the gateway for the U.S. to Asia Pacific.
06:56 And United is actually operating the largest hub in that market.
07:01 We have over 200 flights a day in that market.
07:05 And so it's going to be able to attract customers from all over the continental U.S. to San Francisco and then on to the Philippines.
07:14 And after this new route that you will be introducing and we'll take off with it on October the 30th,
07:20 what are United's growth strategies and other plans going forward?
07:26 So, you know, we took a little different path than other airlines during the pandemic.
07:33 We pulled down our service during the peak of the pandemic.
07:37 We ended up operating only about 4% of our network in international.
07:43 But what we said is we want to be ready for when travel rebounds.
07:48 Because we really felt back then the travel pundits and experts were saying travel would take five years to come back.
07:56 Right.
07:57 Travel, corporate travel would never come back.
08:00 But we saw it just bounce back so quickly with revenge travel back in 2021 and 2022.
08:07 Exactly. And so what we said is we believe that people really need face-to-face interaction.
08:14 So when we pull this network down, we want to do it in a smart way so that when traffic does come back, we're ready to bounce back with the traffic.
08:25 And so we're the only global airline that did not retire any of our international wide body fleet.
08:33 We also kept our pilots on board. We didn't fire any of our pilots.
08:38 And so now as travel rebounds, we're able to bounce back very quickly, quickly.
08:43 So right now in August of this year, we're operating about 16% more in Asia Pacific than we were in 2019.
08:55 And which particular aircraft will you be using for this San Francisco-Manila-San Francisco route?
09:00 It'll be a 777-300ER, our largest aircraft in the fleet with 350 seats.
09:10 Will it have first business?
09:13 Of course. It'll have our Polaris business class, also United Premium Flots, which is a premium economy and then economy service.
09:22 All right. Everyone's really very excited about the entry of United Airlines direct flight from the U.S. to Manila.
09:28 How can they book their flights? Is it just online or can they go directly to the United Airlines office in Bonifacio Global City?
09:37 Well, I would say United.com is a good place to book your flight as well as your local travel agency.
09:44 If you have a great travel agency here in Manila, certainly they have the ability to book the flight for you.
09:51 Congratulations, Wally, for this new United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Manila.
09:58 We're thrilled to be here. Thank you.
10:00 Wally Dias, United Airlines Regional Director for Greater China, Korea and Southeast Asia.