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Elijah Felice Rosales - The Philippine Star
April 8, 2026 | 12:00am
In an advisory, PAL announced the extension of flight suspensions to Doha and Dubai until May 31 and to Riyadh until April 9.
STAR / File
MANILA, Philippines — Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) has extended flight suspensions to the Middle East until the end of May as security risks, including airspace restrictions, persist in the region.
In an advisory, PAL announced the extension of flight suspensions to Doha and Dubai until May 31 and to Riyadh until April 9.
Initially, PAL had only cancelled Manila flights to Doha and Dubai until April 30 and to Riyadh until April 8.
PAL said it has decided to extend the flight suspensions for safety reasons. There is no certainty yet on when geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East would die down, forcing PAL to tighten up precautionary measures for passenger and crew safety.
As protocol, PAL said affected passengers may rebook to another flight at no additional cost. The airline is also offering ticket conversion to travel credits with a 20-percent bonus.
PAL is open to refunding flights in full, but asked passengers for patience as processing may take up to eight days and remittance may require as long as four weeks.
PAL is the country’s largest carrier operating in the Middle East, being the only one domestically that offers daily flights to Doha, Dubai and Riyadh.
The Lucio Tan-owned airline, however, has seen its Middle East flights limp since Feb. 28, when US-Israel forces attacked Iran, setting off a series of retaliatory strikes.
Cirium head of valuation George Dimitroff said security tensions in the Middle East would cause flight cancellations in the region and elsewhere. For one, the Middle East is home to some of the world’s busiest airports like the Dubai International Airport and Hamad International Airport.
Likewise, airspace closures in the region will leave Asian airlines like PAL with no choice but to suspend flights to and from the Middle East. Or, Dimitroff said they could pass through some of the longer corridors that add flight time and increase fuel burn.
The Middle East accounts for about 11 percent of PAL’s capacity and as much as eight percent of the airline’s revenues.
PAL, for its part, is supplied with enough jet fuel until mid-2026, promising that it can deliver on all of its scheduled flights in spite of oil price hikes.
