Gulf Air gets more flight privileges to RP

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — The government has given Bahrain’s flag carrier Gulf Air two more flight privileges at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and another two at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA).

The agreement was forged during the two-day RP-Bahrain Air Talks held recently here at the Montevista Hotel in the Mimosa Leisure Estate.

Clark Development Corp. (CDC) executive vice president Victor Jose Luciano said hosting the talks provided a golden opportunity for Clark to showcase developments at the DMIA and the Clark Special Economic Zone (CSEZ).

Officials of the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) said the talks ended with the air panel representatives signing a memorandum of understanding granting Gulf Air two more weekly flights to NAIA, on top of the existing four weekly flights to NAIA, and two to the DMIA.

The Air Service Agreement between the two countries also gave Bahrain the option to convert another three frequencies to Cebu, Clark and a "roving point" in the Philippines to any point outside Manila to be chosen by Gulf Air.

"Gulf Air can potentially fly to Clark on seven frequencies weekly on their Bahrain-Clark route and vice versa," Luciano said.

With this development, more overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Bahrain and nearby Saudi Arabia would have the option to fly home to the Philippines via Clark. The two kingdoms host more than one million OFWs.

This potential also opened possibilities for DMIA to be a staging point for Europeans bound for Asia.

"Gulf Air, being a large Middle Eastern full service international airline with flights to Europe and the US, opens numerous possibilities for our overseas Filipino workers and to bring foreign tourists to the country via DMIA," Luciano added.

The members of the RP air panel include the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Tourism and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

A source who attended the talks, however, said "there was no assurance that Gulf Air will utilize the privilege at Clark" as the "Arab airline’s top priority has always been to obtain more flights to Manila and simply dangled the prospect of flying to Clark to entice Philippine negotiators."

"If past actions are any guide, it is highly unlikely that Gulf Air will exercise its new rights to fly to Clark," he said, noting that the airlines "already enjoys entitlements to serve the Bahrain-Clark route twice weekly but hasn’t used this privilege since obtaining it in 2003.

However, the two panels hammered out a compromise deal that Gulf Air and Philippine Airlines should reach a code sharing agreement within 21 days before the additional flights could be granted to the Arab airlines.

"If the carriers fail to do so, a fresh round of talks between the air panels will take place," the source also said.