Philippine Airlines announced plans to launch direct flights between the Philippines’ second largest city of Cebu City and Los Angeles. The service will commence 15 March 2016, to coincide with the national carrier’s 75th anniversary and will operate three times a week using an A340 aircraft.

The route continues  PAL’s US expansion strategy, which has already seen the launch of flights from Manila to New York earlier this year. PAL currently operates 35 weekly services to the US, including 11 flights per week from Manila to Los Angeles, 10 to San Francisco, four to New York, five to Guam and five to Honolulu.

The new LA service will also become the first direct connection between Cebu and the US, and boosts PAL’s international network from Mactan-Cebu International Airport to 34 weekly flights, including the existing direct services to Nagoya, Osaka, Tokyo and Seoul.