RP mulls more Mla-Dubai flights for Emirates

After a decade of lending a deaf ear, the Philippine government is now willing to listen and seriously consider a request from the United Arab Emirates to increase the number of weekly flights from Dubai to Manila and back from the present six to as much as 14.

A Philippine committee composed of representatives from the local civil aviation office and airline companies are sitting down with their UAE counterparts for a series of bilateral air talks at the end of this month to determine whether the Philippines will finally allow an increase in the number of flights by Emirates to Dubai-Manila-Dubai and by Gulf Air to Abu Dhabi-Manila-Abu Dhabi.

Following the signing of a bilateral air services agreement last April 1 between the UAE and the Philippines, the two panels will now discuss the frequencies, routes, as well as other flight details. The talks on April 29 and 30 will cover a review of the current capacity entitlements to reflect market conditions and traffic growth.

Philippine officials said that increasing the number of flights will generate more tourism for the Philippines, which in turn will generate tourist spending. An average UAE tourist spends around $200 a day and right now, their most popular destinations are Singapore, Thailand, and Hong Kong due to inadequate flights to Manila.

It is also expected to boost trade between the UAE and the Philippines. Among the major Philippine export products to the UAE are electronics, cosmetics, yarns, natural and cultured pearls, and aviation fuel. The volume of trade (valued at $956 million in 2000) is expected to further go up once more flights are allowed to Dubai to accommodate cargo.

There are seven emirates in the UAE, two of which are Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the commercial capital and historical capital, respectively. The UAE is the fourth top employer of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) surpassing Singapore which is now sixth. In 2000, the amount of remittances by OFWs from UAE to the Philippines reached a whopping $270 million.

Emirates senior GM for commercial operations (West Asia and Pacific Rim) Keith Longstaff said yesterday that the last time their flight frequency allocation was increased was in 1991. From two flights a week when Emirates commenced operations in Manila in 1990, this was increased to six the following year.

Since then, despite tremendous increases in the volume of traffic, especially of overseas Filipino workers working in Dubai as well as cargo (mostly carried by OFWs), the frequency has remained at six flights a week for more than a decade now, Longstaff said.

In 1992, the number of people that have traveled the Dubai-Manila-Dubai route was 55,000. This increased by 17 percent to 152,000 last year. The volume of cargo also shot up, from 2395 tons in 1992 to 5058 tons in 2001.

Tourist traffic from Dubai to the Philippines is, however, low at 6,000 passengers considering that one million tourists leave Dubai every year, of which 250,000 go to the Far East. Longstaff said this low number is due to the inadequacy of flights (only six) to accommodate tourist traffic from Dubai to Manila.

Due to the huge traffic and limited flights to Manila and Dubai, Emirates is forced to turn people away during reservations. From Oct. to March 2002 (winter), the load factor was placed at 83 percent compared to 69 percent in the same period last year. From March to end-Sept. 2001 (summer), the seat utilization factor was 85 percent as against 76 percent the previous year.

And if the six flights a week is increased to 14, Longstaff expects that the seat utilization factor will still be no less than 70 percent.

Emirates area manager for the Philippines Gigie Baroa said that for many years now, they have tried to convince the Philippine government to increase the number of flights, but no action was taken.

According to Longstaff, more flights from Dubai to Manila and back will mean more OFWs, and tourists coming to the Philippines. There are around 150,000 Filipinos working in UAE, of which 70 percent (around 100,000) are in Dubai and the rest in Abu Dhabi. The number of OFWs is expected to increase, with at least 30,000 additional job opportunities expected in the next three years in Dubai alone.

Despite the huge number of OFWs working in UAE, there are only eight weekly flights to that destination (six to Dubai-Manila-Dubai and two to Abu Dhabi-Manila-Abu Dhabi). "While there are only 120,000 OFWs in Singapore, they have 38 flights a week. In Hongkong where there are only 120,000 OFWs in Singapore, they have 38 flights a week. How come we only have eight," he said.

One of the reasons why the number has remained at eight, sources said, is because local flag carrier Philippine Airlines was operating the Manila-Dubai-Manila route until very recently when they ceased to operate this route. "PAL was not making money from its Dubai operations," a PAL official said.

Because of this, PAL now has a code-sharing arrangement with Emirates. This means that PAL is allocated a certain number of seats in a particular Emirates flight to Dubai which the former can sell. PAL and Emirates then share in the revenues.

PAL also has a code-sharing agreement with Gulf Air for flights to Abu Dhabi as well as with other international airline companies. PAL officials explained that entering into such arrangement is more profitable and economical for them.

Right now, the only Middle East destination where PAL flies its own planes is to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Officials said that they have no plans in the meantime to fly to UAE.