Philippine Airlines has just put its newest route to the United States on sale, and it’s one that we knew was coming…
In this post:
Philippine Airlines plans Chicago flights as of late 2026
As of November 9, 2026, Philippine Airlines plans to launch 3x weekly nonstop flights between Manila (MNL) and Chicago (ORD). At 8,132 miles, this will be an ultra long haul flight, probably around the 25th longest flight in the world. The new service will operate with the following schedule:
PR132 Manila to Chicago departing 4:40PM arriving 4:45PM
PR133 Chicago to Manila departing 10:45PM arriving 5:25AM (+2 days)
The route will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, in both directions, and is blocked at 14hr15min to the United States, and a whopping 16hr40min to the Philippines. The airline will use an Airbus A350-900 for the route, featuring 295 seats. This includes 30 business class seats (I’ve reviewed this product), 24 premium economy seats, and 241 economy seats.
Flights are already on sale. Several weeks back we had a sense this route was coming, when the airline filed with the Department of Transportation (DOT) to request regulatory approval for this service.
Here’s how Philippine Airlines President Richard Nuttall describes this service:
“Chicago is considered one of the premier hubs in the United States, and our entry into this vibrant city will provide direct connectivity to the Midwest. At the same time, serving the Chicago–Manila corridor will create vital links to key regional destinations and major Philippine domestic markets through our Manila hub.”
How Chicago fits into Philippine Airlines’ route network
For context, currently Philippine Airlines’ destinations in the United States include Guam (GUM), Honolulu (HNL), Los Angeles (LAX), New York (JFK), Saipan (SPN), San Francisco (SFO), and Seattle (SEA). Seattle is the newest gateway, with that route having launched in late 2024.
Philippine Airlines has been through quite the transformation in recent years. In 2021, the airline filed for bankruptcy protection, and significantly shrunk its fleet, given the impacts of the pandemic. Then in 2023, the airline placed an order for nine Airbus A350-1000s, just shortly after dumping some of its existing Airbus A350-900s. Those planes are now joining the fleet, so I imagine that growth is what enables new routes like this one.
Philippine Airlines doesn’t belong to any major global alliance. Instead, the airline (obviously) serves the local market in the Philippines, but also often has attractive fares across the Pacific, for those connecting to elsewhere.
In terms of the size of the Filipino population, Chicago ranks seventh(ish) among US cities, after Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Honolulu, San Diego, and Las Vegas. As you can see, the top four cities are all served by the airline. Meanwhile the airline used to fly to Las Vegas as a tag flight from the Vancouver service, but that doesn’t operate anymore.
Bottom line
As of November 2026, Philippine Airlines intends to launch nonstop flights between Manila and Chicago, and flights are now on sale. This complements the existing US mainland destinations of Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle, and it seems like a logical enough place for the airline to expand to. With the new A350-1000s that the airline is acquiring, there’s also a bit more room to grow (though this route will be operated by an A350-900).
What do you make of Philippine Airlines adding Chicago flights?
How about do a piece on how using AS miles on PR has been 'coming soon' for 2 years now?
Quite a few Filipinos in many of Chicago's Northern suburbs like Morton Grove, Skokie, Niles, Glenview, Buffalo Grove, etc. So definitely lots of VFR traffic between Chicago and Manilla.
Interesting for sure but you left out the (most likely) practical aspect for your readers - How do we go about getting a couple of business class award saver seats? If there's none available then that makes this purely abstract to points-and-miles readers who want to be comfortable on a 17 hour flight.
Where is 'ORD Is My Second Home' to give us the a hot-take?!
Busy flying right now. And this isn't relevant to me, so I have no opinion.
Who you flyin’? AA, UA, WN? Certainly not DL or B6 or a ULCC…
AA. SGU-PHX-ORD to be exact. Pointy end both flights. Tried the Lavazza aboard the plane (I have some Lavazza at home right now for comparison). Not exactly perfect but much better than Fresh Poo.
This would become the one and only option to fly directly from ORD to MNL. It’ll be a very tempting alternative. So UA/EVA/ANA currently carry alot of CHI-MNL traffic, but all require 1-2 stopovers (UA in SFO; ANA in NRT/HND; EVA through Taiwan). Offering initial flights in November also positions PAL perfectly for the holiday season.
Ugh! The only thing worse than flying Philippine Airlines to the Philippines is flying Air India to India! ….. nah, never mind, this is worse.
Mel, the resident chode. They are actually quite good. You’ve clearly got a lot of experience travelling with them .. not.
One thing worse than flying Philippine Air to Manila is arriving at NAIA.
I wonder if Delta was able to successfully cry their way to favorable MNL landing/takeoff times.
Hi, it's been a minute. I trust everyone is well and had a Happy Passover/Easter/Eid for those who celebrate.
Philippine Airlines has served Chicago briefly in the 80s, but with a stop in Vancouver like plenty of transpacific carriers back in the day with leased DC-10s, 742s. This is the first time it will be non-stop.
The A359 is the perfect aircraft to start until the market matures. Once they have enough A35Ks, then...
Hi, it's been a minute. I trust everyone is well and had a Happy Passover/Easter/Eid for those who celebrate.
Philippine Airlines has served Chicago briefly in the 80s, but with a stop in Vancouver like plenty of transpacific carriers back in the day with leased DC-10s, 742s. This is the first time it will be non-stop.
The A359 is the perfect aircraft to start until the market matures. Once they have enough A35Ks, then they can upgauge to meet demand when the market matures.
It also appears that it will have a significant ground time of 6 hours. And American has a new codeshare agreement with them, so the arrival time in Chicago helps with connections.
After Chicago, they're looking into Houston and possibly a return to Las Vegas.
That would have to be "or" not "and."
The current USA-Philippines bilateral only allows service to 9 US metros, and only 4 of them are optional (the other 5 must be LAX, SFO, HNL, GUM, SPN.)
So unless they work with the DOT to expand the bilateral or go open skies, then they'll have to pick one or the other.
As Chicago has one of the top-10 largest Filipino populations in the USA, Chicago makes sense as a nonstop destination for Philippine Airlines.
Thank you, Captain Obvious.
Not all of us are familiar with the ethnic breakdowns of all the different major domestic cities. Props to you for knowing them, I sure didn't.
But Lucky mentions it in the article…
“In terms of the size of the Filipino population, Chicago ranks seventh(ish) among US cities, after Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Honolulu, San Diego, and Las Vegas.”