Phl inks air pact with NZ

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines successfully concluded its third air talks this year after reaching an agreement with New Zealand on Thursday to increase the number of seats and expand the freedom traffic rights between the two trading partners.

Carmelo Arcilla, executive director of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), said the Philippines and New Zealand agreed to increase the frequency entitlement for each side to 21 flights per week or seven times the existing three flights per week.

Arcilla added that 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.

“Both countries also agreed to improve the fifth freedom exchange, allowing Philippine carriers to operate fifth freedom to Australia, and New Zealand carriers to operate fifth freedom to China,” he said.

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.

“Although there are no immediate plans for any carrier to operate direct flights between the  Philippines  and  New Zealand, given the small size of the current market, the enhanced fifth freedom can provide better opportunities for carriers to support start-up operations,” Arcilla said.

The delegations also agreed to allow third country code sharing for the carriers of the  Philippines and New Zealand .

“More importantly, third country code sharing will allow the airlines to market indirect but more seamless services between the two countries, via cooperative agreements with third country airlines, which can help develop the market,” Arcilla explained.

National flag carrier Philippine Airlines has direct flights to Australia, while budget airline Cebu Air Inc. (Cebu Pacific) is looking at doing the same.

This was the third successful air talks for the Philippines this year after it concluded negotiations with Singapore last month and France in January.

Last year, the Philippines signed new air agreements with Japan, Macau, Brazil,  Australia, Israel and Italy.

President Aquino has signed Executive Order 29 authorizing the CAB and the Philippine air panels to pursue more aggressively the international civil aviation liberalization policy.