The Philippines and Malaysia expand air rights agreement

THE PHILIPPINES' air panel, headed by its Civic Aeronautics Board (CAB), has increased seat entitlements between the country and Malaysia for the Manila-Kuala Lumpur route. The extra capacity will soon be distributed among local carriers.

CAB legal division head, Wyrlou Samodio, confirmed the agreement for 2,520 additional weekly seats between the two ASEAN countries. Samodio disclosed to TTG Asia e-Daily that talks on increasing entitlements on routes to Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam were also planned within the quarter.

Low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific immediately lodged a request to obtain an initial 720 of the allotted seats immediately following the agreement. Cebu Pacific is currently entitled to 1,800 seats on the Manila-Kuala Lumpur route, while 500 seats are allotted to Philippine Airlines in a codeshare agreement with Malaysia Airlines.

The Philippines has a total of 18,300 weekly seats to Malaysia, distributed across different airports, including the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark, Pampanga, which has a largely unutilized allocation of 9,000 seats. Zest Air and Air Philippines Express have reportedly agreed to take up part of the Clark airport allocation, while SEAir's participation is yet to be determined.

Meanwhile, Samodio reiterated the opportunity offered to foreign airlines by the Philippines' open skies policy, implemented in March this year, which gives foreign airlines third, fourth, and fifth freedoms of the air rights to airports outside Manila.Carriers Air Busan, Jeju Air and Jin Air from South Koreaandnbsp; the largest source of foreign tourist arrivals in the countryandnbsp; will soon be flying into the Philippines with new CAB permits.

Source = ttgasia