ETIHAD Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is expected to generate $29 million this year from its Philippine operation.

This, as the company plans to increase its flights to Manila by two more per week, its executives informed President Aquino on Thursday.

Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a news briefing that during a courtesy call on Aquino, Etihad CEO James Hogan told the chief executive that his airline is “very bullish” about prospects in the Philippines, where he wants to bring in more European tourists.

“They are now currently flying 12 flights a week.  They’ve expressed the desire and informed the President of their intention to increase it to 14 flights a week.  So that would be equivalent to two flights a day,” said Lacierda, who attended the meeting.

Hogan also informed the president of the “interest of [the] airline to bring European tourists to the Philippines. 
“[He said] the difference here [compared] with other countries is that the tourists here can mingle with the communities...There’s plenty of opportunity here in this country and he mentioned developing the European market for the Philippines....They were very bullish about their prospects here in the Philippines,” Lacierda said.

In 2010, Etihad recorded $24 million in passenger revenues for  servicing the Manila-Abu Dhabi route. This year, Etihad expects to surpass that by $5 million more, said its country manager Roberto Hukom in a press conference yesterday.

“The amount is passenger revenue from the point of sale from the Philippines. If you look at our overall revenue our Philippine operations equate to about 6 to 8 percent. This year, we are looking at improving it to $29 million,” he said.

In the same briefing, the hike in Etihad flights between Manila and Abu Dhabi is via a code-share service agreement with Philippine Airlines (PAL). 

Code sharing is an arrangement between airlines in which an airline can share seating capacity in a single aircraft with another airline and split the revenues. 

In this case, Etihad is the operating carrier. This arrangement allows PAL seat allocation on Etihad’s daily service between Manila and the United Arab Emirates capital.

The code-share service with Etihad is marketed and sold in the Philippines and the UAE as joint PAL/Etihad flights. These are displayed in computer reservations systems as both Etihad, with airline code EY, and PAL, with code PR flights.

Code-sharing is a widespread industry practice in which two or more airlines offer a joint product to the traveling public. The partner carriers are active participants in the arrangement, with both combining their sales and promotional muscle to develop markets, leading to better deals for passengers.

Hukom said 30 outbound and 20 inbound seats are allocated for PAL while load factor averages at 80 percent.

From the current 12 weekly services, Hogan said the airline is increasing this to 14 weekly flights through an additional of two code-share flights with PAL.

Hogan said the demand for flights to the Philippines from the Middle East is very strong since its Manila service was launched a few years back.

“We are focused on building our presence here in the Philippines. The Philippine market is dominated by overseas workers and we are willing to look for other ways to do business here. We have discussed with President Aquino what more we can do for your tourism,” Hogan said.

The flights have been hugely successful with customers from UAE’s large Filipino community, as well as leisure travelers visiting the Philippines on holiday. 

Hogan said the economic and tourism ties between the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines are expected to strengthen further. 

Hogan met with President Aquino and Vice President Jejomar Binay. He is set to meet with PAL officials and other aviation officials today.

The airline currently employs a total of 767 Filipino nationals—739 staffers in its Abu Dhabi head office and 28 in outstation offices. Filipinos make up the second-largest national group working at Etihad. Of this number, 540 are female.

Etihad currently operates 12 weekly flights between Abu Dhabi and Manila with seamless connections to destinations in the Middle East, Africa, the UK, Ireland, Europe and North America.

A Palace statement quoted Hogan as saying that he discussed with  Aquino the improvement of the Philippine economy, tourism, infrastructure,  “and the role that we play in operating into and out of the Philippines.”

Hogan was accompanied in Malacañang by Hukom; Khaled Al Mehairbi, senior vice president for Government and Aeropolitical Affairs; and Hassan Al Hammadi, senior vice president for Executive Affairs and Corporate Security.

Other government officials present at the meeting were Transportation Secretary Jose De Jesus, Trade undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya, and Manila International Airport Authority general manager Jose Angel Honrado.