Xiamen Air seeks permit to fly to Phl

MANILA, Philippines - Another airline from China is seeking the green light to fly to the Philippines amid the growing number of Chinese tourists visiting the country, documents from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) showed.

 Xiamen Airlines, the sixth biggest airline in China, has filed a petition with the CAB seeking a foreign air carrier’s permit (FACP) to operate international scheduled passenger and cargo air transportation services.

 Xiamen Air started operating in 1985 and is now China’s sixth largest airline with a fleet of 100 aircraft serving 218 domestic routes and 26 international and regional routes.

 The Chinese carrier is looking at expanding its fleet to more than 200 aircraft by 2020. Its major shareholders include China Southern Airlines, Xiamen C & D Corp. Ltd., and Jizhong Energy Resources Co. Ltd.

 Jose Angel Honrado, general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), said Xiamen Air would be the fourth carrier from China to operate in the Philippines,

 Honrado said airlines from China that operate at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) include China Airlines, China Southern Airlines, and China Eastern Airlines.

 “Passenger traffic seems to be bright,” he added.

 Data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) showed that tourist arrivals in the Philippines climbed by 2.2 percent to 2.43 million in the first half of the year from 2.38 million in the same period last year.

 Major source of tourists form January to June this year were South Korea with 547,971; US with 389,432; China with 226,163; Japan with 220,366; and Australia with 111,687.

 Honrado earlier said MIAA has given Oman Air and Garuda Indonesia the green light to fly out of NAIA Terminal 1 within the year.

 NAIA1 is able to accommodate more foreign airlines as five foreign airlines led by Delta Airlines, Emirates, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines are transferring to NAIA3.

 Takenaka Corp. of Japan has completed the P1.9-billion retrofitting and rehabilitation of NAIA3 while DMCI Holdings is set to complete the P1.3-billion rehabilitation of NAIA1 by the first quarter of next year.

 Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya earlier said the government is looking at interconnecting terminals 1 and 2 of NAIA to cope with increasing number of tourist arrivals.

 Aside from building a NAIA5 beside NAIA3, Abaya pointed out that the government is studying the possibility of augmenting the passenger capacities of both terminals 1 and 2.

 The government would first relocate the fuel depot between the two terminals so it could build a structure connecting both passenger terminal buildings.