PAL, Eva Air ink joint cargo service pact

Philippine Airlines and Taiwanese carrier Eva Air have entered into a joint freighter agreement that boosts PAL’s presence in the booming air cargo market between the Philippines and Taiwan.

The joint service, which commenced Oct. 17, is initially for three flights weekly, increasing to four flights weekly this month, using Eva Air’s Boeing 747-400 or MD-11 freighter aircraft.

All joint-service, flights have dual designation, with both Eva Air (BR) and PAL (PR) codes attached to the flight number.

The partnership with Eva Air provides PAL with additional freight capacity to meet the increasing requirements of traders on both sides of the Bashi Channel separating the two neighbors.

Philippine exports to Taiwan expanded by 27 percent to $1.65 billion in 2002 and the figure for the first eight months of 2003 has already reached $1.38 billion.

Imports from Taiwan have showed equally robust growth, with the value for January to August 2003 of $ 1.18 billion nearly matching 2002’s total Taiwan import bill of $1.22 billion.

The Philippines is also a major manufacturing and assembly base for Taiwanese firms, further fueling cargo traffic between the two sides.

Eva Air, an affiliate of the Taiwan-based container shipping giant Evergreen Marine Corp., is PAL’s second cargo code-share partner, after Lufthansa German Airlines on the Manila-Frankfurt route. The latter agreement though has been temporarily suspended since March owing to the economic slowdown.

Cargo operations is one of PAL’s major business units, accounting for about 11 percent of the airline’s operating revenues last fiscal year. The flag carrier is the largest cargo operator domestically and is a key player in the international sector.