THE results of last week’s nego-tiations for an expanded air-services agreement between the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were “more or less fair” for both parties, an official of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) said.
The two nations signed on late Friday a new memorandum of understanding on air services that enhanced the exchange of traffic rights between the two countries, CAB Director Carmelo L. Arcilla said in a text message.
“The parties agreed to increase the maximum number of flights per week for each country from the current 28 flights to 35, subject to the condition that the UAE carrier operating such additional flights to Manila is bound to also operate separately to Clark or Cebu within one year from signing of the memorandum,” Arcilla said.
The CAB official said the condition is in line with the country’s open-skies policy in its developmental gateways outside Manila.
“It forces UAE airlines to invest in our developmental gateway,” Arcilla said. Manila also got on a unilateral basis additional fifth freedom traffic rights to the United Kingdom, the US and Saudi Arabia.
“This means that our carriers can fly from Manila to the UAE and onward to any country, including the UK, the US and Saudi Arabia. This will improve Philippine connectivity and also the commercial viability of our routes to the UAE,” Arcilla said.
He said the parties also agreed on “co-terminalization.”
“This means that an airline from one country can fly to a city in the other country and onward to another city in that country without picking up passengers in the domestic leg. This also improves connectivity and viability,” Arcilla said.
The talks pushed through despite calls from local carriers to defer the negotiations, citing the “unfair
financial advantage” held by the Middle Eastern carriers.
“Overall, the talks is a success for Philippine connectivity and network development. The Philippine government panel and our airlines view the exchange as more or less fair, as the increase in traffic rights for both sides, which our airlines opposed, is minimal,” Arcilla said.
“We also got unilateral concessions for the increase, in terms of subjecting the operation of the additional traffic rights by the UAE carriers, on the operation of services to Clark or Cebu—which are covered by our open-skies policy,” he added.
The Philippine air panel has expanded air pacts with Singapore, Oman, Australia, Qatar, Turkey and Russia this year.
In February the local air panel was able to expand the country’s air traffic to Singapore, increasing capacity entitlements to 18,888 seats per week, from 17,627. It also bagged additional flight frequencies from Oman in April, raising the country’s air-traffic entitlements to seven from three flights per week.
The Philippines and Australia in April signed a new air pact, increasing the entitlements between Manila and Canberra to 9,300 seats per week, from 6,000 seats per week.
In May the Philippines and Qatar increased the number of flights between their capitals to 14 flights per week from eight. The last round of air talks was held in 2009.
Manila and Istanbul agreed in June to update their agreements, increasing the number of weekly flights between the capitals from three to seven. Russia and the Philippines also agreed to expand their air-services agreement in July.
In 2014 the Philippine air panel was able to yield additional flight entitlements from the following countries: Malaysia, Hong Kong, Ethiopia, South Africa, Macau, Canada, Myanmar, New Zealand, Singapore and France.