Isabela Customs

by Indio Historian

This day in 1941, just before World War II in the Pacific, Philippine Airlines began its operation with its first flight from Manila (Nielson Airfield, now Ayala Triangle Gardens, Makati) to Baguio through a five-seater Beech model 18. PAL is the first Asian airline.

Established in 1930, the Philippine Aerial Taxi Company Inc. (PATCO) was an aerial transport service that served different locations in the Philippines. It had scheduled flights daily for Manila-Baguio, and on weekdays for Manila-Paracale. The pilots were U.S. Army Air Corp reserve officers.

In February 1941, Spanish Filipino industrialist, Andres Soriano, and former senator Ramon Hernandez, purchased PATCO, and renamed it "Philippine Air Lines." The Commonwealth government invested on the airline in September 1941, aiming for its nationalization.

in 1941, PAL had its maiden flight, with a Beechcraft Model 18 NPC-54 taking off from Nielson Airport, with five passengers, all of whom were investors and business partners of Soriano.

But with the outbreak of war on December 8, 1941, the airline ceased operating, only resuming its flights on February 14, 1946, using refurbished military planes unscathed from the war.

In 1946, PAL became the first Asian airline to cross the Pacific Ocean via its Douglas DC-3, taking off from Nielson Airport Makati and making stopovers in Guam, Wake Island, Kwajalein, and Honolulu, reaching Oakland, California in July 31.

Photos:
- Flight attendants of "Philippine Air Lines," undated
- Andres Soriano Sr., from Andres Soriano Foundation
- Poster art of Philippine Air Lines DC-3 in 1946, from Maynardo Mendoza paper (http://philippinestudies.net/ojs/index.php/ps/article/viewFile/4063/6066)