PAL (Philippine Airlines)

♦  The Philippine Aerial Taxi Company (PATCO) was established as an air shuttle service to and from Manila, Baguio, and Paracale in 1930 by Andres Soriano. On 18Mar1931, it made its first round-trip flight between Manila and Iloilo with a single Beech 18. In 1936 it moved from air taxi services to scheduled services. It went bankrupt in 1940 and Soriano and former senator Ramón J. Fernández acquired the franchise of Philippine Aerial Taxi Company, Inc. and was officially incorporated in Feb1941 under the name of Philippine Airways, with shareholders comprising a group of Filipino, German and Spanish industrialists and businessmen. The carrier was reformed on 13Mar1941, when it changed its name to Philippine Air Lines (PAL), starting operations on 15Mar1941. Ceased operations during WWII. It absorbed 2 scheduled airlines, FEATI (Far Eastern Air Transport) in 1947, CALI (Commercial Air Lines) in 1948 and then Trans Asiatic Airlines in late 1950. Renamed from Philippine Air Lines to Philippine Airlines in 1970. Had Air Manila and Filipinas Orient Airways merge in in 1973

< scheduled services out of its hubs at Ninoy Aquino International Airport of Manila, Clark International Airport of Angeles, Mactan-Cebu International Airport of Cebu, and Francisco Bangoy International Airport of Davao, Philippine Airlines serves 31 destinations in the Philippines and 41 overseas destinations in Southeast Asia, East Asia, Middle East, Oceania, North America and Europe > ♦