PAL, Cebu Pac seek add’l flights to KSA

MANILA, Philippines - Domestic airlines led by Philippine Airlines (PAL) of airline and beverage magnate Lucio Tan and diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. as well as Gokongwei-controlled Cebu Air Inc. (Cebu Pacific) are seeking more flight frequencies to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

PAL, Air Philippines Corp., Cebu Pacific, and Zest Airways Inc. filed a consolidated application for designation or allocation of entitlements to KSA before the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) exactly a month after the country successfully concluded air talks with the Middle East country.

Last month, the Philippines and KSA agreed to increase the number of flight frequencies to 21 per week from the current 10 per week.

Both countries also agreed to unlimited flights between Saudi Arabia and Clark in Pampanga as well as between the Philippines and Dammam.

Under the application, PAL hopes to fly to Riyadh seven times a week via the King Khaled International Airport starting March next year and also seven times a week to Jeddah via the King Abdulaziz International Airport starting May next year.

PAL which recently inked a $10 billion contract with Airbus for the acquisition of over 60 wide-bodied aircraft also intends to fly to Dammam seven times a week via the King Fahd International Airport starting July next year.

The country’s national flag carrier intends to use wide bodied Airbus 330 and 340 as well as Boeing B777 for the long-haul flights.

PAL’s sister firm AirPhilippines intends to fly to Riyadh and Jeddah 14 times per week during the winter schedule next year.

On the other hand, Cebu Pacific intends to fly to Riyadh and Jeddah 14 times a week and to Dammam seven times per week not later than the winter schedule next year.

Likewise, ZestAir is looking at flying to Riyadh and Jeddah using Airbus A330 during the winter next year.

Aside from KSA, the Philippines also concluded air talks with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) doubling the flight entitlements to 28 flights per week from 14 flights per week between the two countries.

There are about 10 million Filipinos working and living abroad. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) sees OFW remittances rising five percent this year from the record $20.12 billion booked last year.

In the first seven months of the year, OFW remittances rose 5.2 percent to $11.936 billion from $11.351 billion in the same period last year.

President Aquino has signed Executive Order 29 authorizing the CAB and the Philippine air panels to pursue more aggressively the international civil aviation liberalization policy.

To boost the country’s competitiveness as a tourism destination and investment location, the government decided to pursue more aggressively a liberalization policy in international aviation through the grant of third, fourth and fifth freedom rights and unrestricted capacities and frequencies to foreign air carriers, among others.