PAL welcomes more Taiwan charter flights

Philippine Airlines will welcome an increase in the frequency of charter flights operated by air charter companies from Taiwan to the Philippines as a means of easing the absence of regular scheduled services between the two destinations.

"Our desire to see more Taiwanese charter flights operating to the Philippines is made in all good faith, notwithstanding the repeated rejection by the Taipei aviation authorities of our own application to operate reciprocal charters," said PAL president Avelino L. Zapanta.

In October and again in November 1999, Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration turned down PAL's request to operate twice-a-week charter flights between Laoag and Taipei, and between Subic and Taipei.

Ironically, in the same months, the Philippines' Civil Aeronautics Board approved the applications of Taiwanese carriers Far Eastern Air Transport Corp. and U-Land Airlines to add extra flights to their charter services between Taipei and Kaohsiung, and between Subic and Cebu.

Far Eastern Air currently operates nine flights a month on the Taipei-Subic route, and one flight a week between Kaohsiung and Subic, using 150-seater Boeing 757 aircraft. U-Land Air flies twice weekly between Kaohsiung and Cebu with 150-seater MD-82 airplanes.

These charter flights have sustained the brisk flow of tourists from Taiwan to the Philippines despite the suspension of regular commercial air links between the two destinations since Oct. 1, 1999. Charter flights are not covered by the air services agreement.

Indeed, the bulk of tourist arrivals from Taiwan, even when regular flights were still operating, enter the country via charter flights to Subic, Laoag and Cebu, which have become favored weekend destinations for Taiwanese.

"These charter flights are obviously very good for our tourism industry and although we have been denied the fair chance to dot he same, we do not take it against the Taiwanese charter carriers. In fact, we even encourage them to increase their services," said Zapanta.