Phl, Korea to hike flight frequencies

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines and South Korea have agreed to increase the flights between the two countries given rising demand, an official said yesterday.

Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) executive director Carmelo Arcilla said in a telephone interview yesterday that the Philippines signed an agreement with South Korea following air talks held last week.

“From 19,000 seats per week for each country, the entitlements have been increased by 50 percent to 28,500 seats per week,” he said.

He said the air talks were held because of demand from airlines from both countries.

He noted that 925,000 tourists from Korea visited the Philippines last year.

“We expect the number of Korean visitors to hit one million or more this year,” he said.

He also said that the additional seats per week is sufficient to cover the increase in visitors for the next few years.

The additional entitlements, he said, would be allocated depending on the expansion plans of carriers.

Asked why unlimited air rights were not granted to carriers from South Korea, he said that their counterparts wanted unlimited air rights to Manila.

“We can’t do that (give unlimited rights) since we want to encourage airlines in airports outside of Manila,” he said.

Air talks are being conducted by the country in line with the open skies policy.

Executive Order 29 which was signed by President Benigno Aquino III in March of last year authorized government negotiators to grant access to foreign airlines to the country’s airports other than the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

The policy was intended to support tourism growth and encourage foreign airlines to operate at secondary gateways.

Last year, the country concluded air talks with Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam and Taiwan.

Arcilla said the country is looking to conduct second round of negotiations with Indonesia this year.

“Our group will meet next week to firm up the schedule for talks with Indonesia,” he said.