January 04, 1980 

The Jumbo Jet Era.  PAL began flying the Boeing 747-200 on trans-Pacific services to San Francisco via Honolulu.  The PAL B747s boasted 1 full-length Skybeds in an upper deck Cloud Nine cabin, the first airline beds to be fully certificated for use during take-off and landing. 

February 17-23, 1981

PAL served the Papacy when Saint (then Pope) John Paul II came to the Philippines on a 6-day pastoral visit. Three PAL aircraft, namely a Boeing 727-200, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and a NAMC YS-11, proudly wore Viva Il Papa decals as they carried out the papal mission, covering 7,954 kilometers with domestic flights to Cebu, Davao, Bacolod, Iloilo, Legazpi, Subic Bay, and Baguio, as well as foreign legs to Guam and Tokyo. 

October 13, 1984

PAL achieved the 50,000,000 mark in revenue passengers carried.  The 50 millionth passenger flew onboard PR485, from Cebu to Dipolog.

March 01, 1987

PAL introduced flights to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as part of its mission to serve the growing population of overseas Filipino workers based in the Middle East and around the world.  

December 17, 1980

“Hooray for Hollywood” was emblazoned on PAL’s B747-200, as PAL inaugurated services to Los Angeles.  The Californian mega-city would grow to become PAL’s biggest U.S. destination for the next few decades.

May 01, 1987

PAL introduced the Shorts SD 360 “Sunriser” for turboprop services from Cebu to points in the Visayas and Mindanao region.

September 14, 1987

PAL undertook its first in-house B747 D-Check at the PAL Technical Center in Manila -- the biggest aircraft overhaul job in the company's history. For PAL’s B747-200 N743PR, the scope of work included the repainting to the new rising sun livery and introduction of a new cabin interior designed by Landor. 

September 24, 1988

PAL introduced the Fokker 50 into service as the primary turboprop for domestic routes.

October 29, 1989

PAL introduced its pioneer code share agreement with Trans World Airlines (TWA) for services to New York JFK via San Francisco and Los Angeles.  This was the first code share agreement forged by PAL with any airline.

August 28, 1989

PAL introduced Boeing 737-300 services on four domestic trunk routes to replace the BAC One Eleven.

September 01, 1989

PAL introduced widebody services to Davao, using the Airbus A300.