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The Philippines and Indonesia are 2 of the favorite travel destinations in South East Asia for the readers of this website. Quite a few islands in the Philippines, as Bali in Indonesia are very valid options for Expats and early retirees to stay long-term and enjoying the good life in those equator paradises.

The times of expensive flights to reach them are luckily over with the introduction of budget carriers a few years back. Still, it was so far a hassle, if you wanted to commute from Indonesia’s prime holiday destination Bali to one of the other island paradises in  the Philippines. Will that finally change very soon?

Until now, there was never a direct flight connection between the Philippines and Bali.

So far you had to fly from Manila or Cebu via the other Asian Capital cities, mainly Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Jakarta  to reach Bali.

Besides the additional landing and stopover, this would also mean almost always hassles, likes juggling your luggage around, additional checkins etc, if you would have to change the airline, as most didn’t fly through between both destinations.

The only options so far were Singapore Airlines via Singapore and Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong, both not known for very competitive pricing.

Budget carriers like Air Asia, Tiger Airways or Cebupacific either only allowed connecting flights via their hub systems, are flying from smaller and more difficult to reach airports like Clark in Luzon or added a couple of hours of stopover to your travel itinerary.

Of course there were always discussions about direct connections between both locations, the hottest talk of the town was last year, when Cebupacific was rumored to introduce Cebu-Bali or Manila-Bali flights soon.

Just imagine how cool it would be, if you have your base in Bali and would be able to surf the Kuta swell in the morning, hop on a plane and go shopping in the Mall of Asia in Manila in the evening, connect that with a visit to the IMAX 3D theatre, sip a few of your favorite cold San Miguel there and be back the next day to surf again – instead of the usual plain Visa Runs to the Duty Free Shop at Changi Singapore to just getting your 1 liter of Absolute Vodka, Tequila or Single Malt.

Or you could easily enjoy the crazy nightlife of Manila over a weekend without arriving there already tired, after before close to 10 hours travel when coming from Bali. A direct route should cut that short to 4-5 hours maximum.

Or Boracay, El Nido and Bohol would be just one plane change away from Bali! Something really unheard of since the discovery of flight over 100 years ago. Lol! It would be so easy now to continue looking for your other island paradises or enjoying the cheap costs of living in Pinas for a while, while maintaining a base in one of Asia’s other most developed yet still affordable prime holiday destinations – Bali.

However, nothing of that ever materialized. So far.

But now it seems, like we will be able to be flying from Manila (MNL) to Bali (DPS) or vice versa direct soon! Could it really be, that Philippine Airlines (PAL) will introduce a direct service as early as December this year? I’m talking 2010 here, that would be in less than 2 months!

Unbelievable?

Press your thumbs, hold your breath or do what you usually do to make wishful thinking happen. This rumor was published first last week in the Travel Trade Gazette. In this magazine, the Group Director of PAL’s Sales arm was quoted, that PAL sees Bali as an interesting travel destination to connect their existing network from Korea, Japan, China and Manila to it.

That sounds really official!

Especially the Japan connection seems to make sense, as both JAL and All Nippon Air ceased their direct flights to Bali this October 2010 due to economic problems following the financial crisis. PAL could step in here and fill the gap, as many Korean and Japanese tourists visit Manila anyway and would probably be interested in a connecting option.

Also for North American tourists it could be an added option, as Manila is a popular stopover destination for them, when flying to South East Asia.

We want Manila – Denpasar. MNL-DPS, DPS-MNL, Bali – Manila. Any which way!

Hopefully the pricing will be competitive also. If a ticket would be in the same price region as currently 2 connecting tickets from budget carriers, this route could really take off big time!

What do you think? Is the option to fly Bali to Manila or vice versa direct an interesting option for you? Or does just another stopover not really matter that much?

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written by Chris