A five-year-in-the-making coffee table book on Philippine Airlines (PAL) was recently launched as part of the national flag carrier’s 75th anniversary celebration.

The 200-page book, launched with foreign dignitaries, government officials and media in attendance, tells the history of PAL—in the stories of its employees past and current. It has interesting trivia on the airline’s many firsts.

PAL chair Dr. Lucio C. Tan and president Jaime J. Bautista personally signed the book during the launch on July 1 at Century Park Hotel in Manila.

Also around were senior vice president Nicky Gozon, SVP Siegfred Mison, SVP Lito Alvarez, special assistant to the chairman Emilio Yu, vice president Ria Domingo, and vice president William Tan.

Present as well were Aurora “Aimee” Carandang-Gloria, the country’s first female commercial pilot, and Fr. Cesar Santos, representing his recently demised mother, Rebecca Verzosa-Santos, PAL’s first international stewardess.

“PAL’s story is also the story of the Philippines and the Filipino people. The flag carrier is our country’s ambassador to the world,” wrote Tan in the book.

“This coffee table book serves as a chronicle of the company’s storied legacy to the Filipino nation,” added Bautista.

Aside from stories on Verzosa-Santos and Carandang-Gloria, the book also has articles on a family of PAL employees spanning three generations, the evacuation flight of Filipinos from war-torn Libya, the pilot of Saint John Paul II during his 1981 Papal visit, the 2015 Pope Francis visit to Tacloban, and many more.

The book includes the evolution of the PAL fleet of aircraft, the PAL logo since 1941, and the cabin crew uniforms since 1946.

The well-researched article on PAL’s history is penned by Carlos Palanca awardee Carmen Aquino Sarmiento.

The book is available at the PAL Boutique in the PAL Executive Offices, PNB Financial

Center, Macapagal Blvd. Pasay City, and soon through the PAL website, www.philippineairlines.com.