ASEAN airline execs meet in Clark today

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Some 60 delegates from the ASEAN Airlines Operator Council (AAOC) are meeting at the Clark special economic zone today to tackle airline concerns amid the burgeoning aviation industry in the Southeast Asia.

"The meeting will discuss vital issues on the growing airline industry among the member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It will be the AAOC’s first meeting since its recent formation," said Clark Development Corp, (CDC) executive vice president Victor Jose Luciano.

The CDC and the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) are hosting the meeting which Luciano said will benefit the ecozone since the airline operators "will have the opportunity to see and assess the potential of the Clark airport as a possible destination of their respective airlines."

"It will open the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) for consideration as a route for more ASEAN airlines," he said.

The ASEAN was established in 1967 in Bangkok by the five original member-countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

Brunei Darussalam joined the regional grouping in 1984, Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997, and Cambodia in 1999.

Luciano cited the significant potentials of the ASEAN aviation industry, saying the region has a total population of about 500 million, a combined gross domestic product of $737 billion, and a total trade of $720 billion.

At present, two of the members of the AAOC — Air Asia Berhad of Malaysia and Tiger Airways of Singapore — have regular flights to the Clark ecozone.

Air Asia flies twice daily between Clark and Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur, while Tiger Air Airways flies five times between Clark and Singapore and plans to increase its flights to 10 weekly next month. — Ding Cervantes