Airlines seek more seat entitlements to Singapore

MANILA, Philippines - Local airlines led by national flag carrier Philippine Airlines Inc. (PAL) and budget airline Cebu Air Inc. (Cebu Pacific) are seeking additional seat entitlements to Singapore .

PAL is seeking 2,186 seats per week for flights between Manila and Singapore and vice versa while its unit PAL Express is applying for 1,638 seats per week.

PAL intends to use Airbus A321 with 199 passengers for the destination while PAL Express would use A320.

Cebu Pacific is applying for 3,459 seats per week using A330 with a capacity of 436 seats while newly acquired Tigerair Philippines is seeking 1,260 seats per week with a capacity of 180 seats.

AirAsia Zest is applying for 2,520 seats per week while parent firm AirAsia is seeking 1,260 seats per week. Both airlines intends to use the A320 aircraft with a capacity of 180 passengers.

Early this month, the Philippines successfully concluded its second air talks after reaching an agreement with Singapore to increase the number of seats and at the same time expand the freedom traffic rights between the two trading partners.

CAB executive director Carmelo Arcilla earlier said the Philippines and Singapore. The Philippines and Singapore signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) on air services increasing the number of seats to about 16,800 on the Manila-Singapore route from the current 13,800 seats per week for each country.

Likewise, he said the agreement also expanded the fifth traffic rights by adding China on top of Osaka and Seoul for Singapore and for India on top of Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok for the Philippines .

Fifth freedom rights refer to the right to fly passengers to third countries from a country with which an airline’s resident country has an outstanding air services agreement.

Arcilla said points outside Metro Manila should be unlimited in accordance with current Philippine policy and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) multilateral agreements on air liberalization.

This was the second successful air talks for the Philippines this year after it concluded negotiations with France last month.