Speaking before reporters of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel, Bautista said the new agreement will definitely help boost the country’s tourism industry.
"They (Gulf Air) will sell seats using our resources. They have offices all over the world," Bautista said, adding the code sharing agreement will enable both airlines to expand destinations.
"So this is a win-win solution for both airline companies," he said.
While Middle East countries do not belong to the top 10 suppliers of tourists in the Philippines, Bautista said the code-share agreement could help sell the country to their nations.
Based on the latest record of tourists arrivals in the Philippines, the top 10 list include Korea, the US, Japan, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
Bautista also noted that the code-share agreement will benefit overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), majority of whom are in Middle East countries.
The PAL top official also said Gulf Air has flights in other destinations of the world where there are Filipino communities.
"So this will be an opportunity to our countrymen to avail themselves of other choices of airline services," he added.
Gulf Air recently signed an agreement to code share with PAL to strengthen passenger traffic between Manila and Bahrain, as well as flights from Manila to Muscat.
The agreement was signed at Gulf Air’s headquarters in Manama, Bahrain by Gulf Air vice president Network Fareed Al Alawi and PAL senior assistant vice president external affairs Ma. Socorro Gonzaga.
The agreement enables PAL to code share on Gulf Air’s Bahrain-Manila-Bahrain and Muscat-Manila-Muscat sectors with Gulf Air operating six flights a week between Bahrain and Manila and one flight per week between Bahrain-Muscat-Manila. – Sandy Araneta