THE restoration of Emirates’s third daily flight from Dubai to Manila will address the current dearth in seat capacity for the said route, the gulf carrier’s general manager for its Philippine operations said over the weekend.
Emirates Philippines Country Manager Abdalla Al Zamani said that there is a “significant gap between the supply and demand for seats” in the Manila-Dubai route.
In fact, the carrier’s two daily flights are currently operating at full capacity in the economy class, leaving no seats for international tourists and overseas Filipino workers, he said.
Given this, more flights should be mounted in order to address this supply-demand discrepancy, Al Zamani added.
The Philippine air panel will meet with its Arab counterparts this week to flesh out the details of the proposed expansion of bilateral rights between the two nations.
Emirates asked no less than President Aquino to launch air-services talks to expand the capacity and meet the demand. It lost its third daily flight earlier this year due to the nonrenewal of its code-share agreement with Philippine Airlines (PAL). “We are confident that the restoration of Emirates’s third daily flight to Manila will ensure widespread and sustained benefits to all stakeholders,” Al Zamani said.
This, however, is being blocked by PAL and Cebu Pacific. PAL President Jaime J. Bautista said the Philippine government should learn from the bitter experience of the US airline industry, which is currently facing an uphill battle against the Middle Eastern carriers over the latter’s alleged unfair practices.
He cautioned the Philippine air panel before it pursues the scheduled air-services talks with the United Arab Emirates, citing the current headwinds that US carriers are going through for opening up the western skies for more air traffic.
The chief operating officer of the legacy carrier is echoing the sentiments of the US airline industry against the tactics of the Middle Eastern carriers who are currently being investigated for unfair competition.
Washington is looking into the allegations of unfair practices of carriers from the Middle East, which are currently being subsidized by the governments. Estimates show that the subsidy that Arab carriers get is now at about $42 billion.
This is being belied by Al Zamani, who noted that his company has been open with regard to its financial performance over the years.
“Emirates has been and continues to be consistently transparent and open about our financials. The allegations of subsidy and unfair competition leveled by the ‘big three’ US legacy carriers—Delta, United and American Airlines is completely false and we have recently released a point-by-point, fact-based response that systematically disproves these allegations,” he said.
Cebu Pacific spokesman Paterno S. Mantaring Jr. said the significant increase in capacity over the year is enough reason for the new round of air talks with the UAE to be ceased. Available Manila-use entitlements are not fully utilized by Philippine carriers.
“Given the significant increase in capacity over the past year, Cebu Pacific believes that a new round of air talks with the UAE should not be held until all available Manila-use entitlements are fully utilized by Philippine carriers who are ready willing and capable of operating routes to UAE including Cebu Pacific,” he said.