CLARK FREE PORT—Thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Central and Northern Luzon are expected to benefit from chartered flights now offered by TransGlobal Airways at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA).

Clark International Airport Corp. president and chief executive officer Victor Jose Luciano announced that TransGlobal Airways will fly from Clark to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

Luciano made the announcement during the inauguration of the Miascor-Gate Gourmet catering facility at the DMIA civil-aviation complex Thursday, where he was the guest speaker.

Luciano said the TransGlobal flight, which launched its inaugural flight to the DMIA at 2 a.m. this morning (Friday, June 6), makes a technical stop in Dhaka, Bangladesh, before proceeding to Fujairah, which is an hour away from Dubai.

Using the 160-seater MD-83 aircraft, Luciano said TransGlobal flights from the Middle East “will greatly benefit the overseas Filipino workers from Central and Northern Luzon.”

The TransGlobal Airways inaugural starts the twice-weekly flights to Clark. Scheduled for Mondays and Wednesdays, the flights are chartered by Kang Pacific.

“This is a new beginning for the DMIA as this is the start of our connection to the Middle East where so many of our countrymen are clamoring for more airlines to fly from the Middle East to the Philippines. This will serve the 1.8 million OFWs working there,” Luciano said.

“The TransGlobal flight will be very accessible to our OFWs working in the Middle East and will make a difference for them,” he said.

Luciano said the flight is an offshoot of the decision of TransGlobal Airways, a Clark-based airline owned by a Filipino, Taiwanese and Korean group, to expand their operations at the airport.

“Clark will now be the link. It will not be Metro Manila. So our OFWs in the Middle East from Regions 1, 2 and 3 and the Cordilleras won’t have to go to Manila and instead catch their flights from DMIA,” he added.

“The TransGlobal flights could also serve Filipino travelers going to Europe,” he pointed out.

Luciano also revealed that TransGlobal will be increasing its flights to the DMIA to five times a week in the coming months. He said the aviation firm has already invested more than $10 million with their aircraft and will increase the investment by another $10 million.

He said TransGlobal will add another Boeing 737 aircraft, which will arrive by the end of June this year, to fly the Bangkok-Clark route.

“This is a very good opportunity to introduce Clark to the Middle East,” Luciano said enthusiastically.

The CIAC official, at the same time, expressed gratitude to the Civil Aeronautics Board for allowing foreign air carriers to operate at the DMIA, especially after it was declared by President Arroyo as the premier international gateway of the country.

Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza earlier said that Clark would become the country’s port of entry once the Asean open-skies road map is signed, which is expected to be this December.

The DMIA averages 40 flights per week from the combined operations of foreign carriers operating at the airport such as Asiana Airlines, Tiger Airways, Air Asia, China Southern Airlines, Deer Air and local carriers Cebu Pacific, Asian Spirit and Southeast Asian Airlines.

WITH the nine-year high inflation rate, independent think tank Ibon Foundation further urged the government to consider restoring oil-industry regulation to ease the pressure on high oil prices.

GOVERNMENT-RUN Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) said Thursday seven parties interested in the acquisition of the 620-megawatt (MW) Limay Combined Cycle Power Plant have attended the prebid conference conducted on Wednesday.

THE government bragged that the intense political noise that hounded the administration early this year did nothing to affect the entry of fresh capital into the country as combined investments approved by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) and the Board of Investments (BOI) increased by 54 percent from January to May.

CLARK FREE PORT—Thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Central and Northern Luzon are expected to benefit from chartered flights now offered by TransGlobal Airways at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA).

MILITANT groups on Thursday cast doubt that the P1,500 fertilizer subsidy promised by Malacañang will reach the intended beneficiaries, dismissing Malacanang’s public announcement as just another spinoff of the P728-million fertilizer scam.

DAVAO CITY—After nurses, doctors, teachers, skilled labor and engineers, now the agriculture sector is complaining of a lack of professionals.

Environment group Greenpeace assailed independent power producer TeaM Energy’s “crooked smear campaign” that its flagship Rainbow Warrior had released untreated wastewater into the waters of Pagbilao Bay based on “dubious test results.”