THE Philippine air panel is going to ask its counterpart in Japan to open up new service points, an official of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) said Wednesday.

The CAB is a member of the panel. Other agencies involved include the Department of Transportation and Communications, Department of Tourism, Department of Trade and Industry and various airlines.

“Our carriers are interested to fly to various points in Japan. The problem there is that there are no more entitlements available because some of the airports in Japan have already reached their full capacity,” said CAB deputy executive director Porvenir Porciuncula in a phone interview.

RP-Japan air talks will be held in June.

Japan measures flight entitlements in coefficients, which is based on the size of the aircraft flying to its airports.

One roundtrip flight is equivalent to one coefficient using a Boeing 575 aircraft, which has a seating capacity of 228; 1.5 coefficients for an Airbus 330, which can carry 250 to 293 passengers; and two coefficients for Boeing 747, which has a seating capacity of 347 to 490.

Nagoya is the nearest airport to Tokyo, which no longer gives slots to foreign airlines because of the heavy traffic.

Japan is considered as the Philippines’ second-largest source of foreign arrivals next to the United States. About 170,000 overseas Filipino workers commuted annually between the two countries.

“We would like to at least ask for other areas outside of the existing points already awarded to us in Japan. There is no definite date yet for Japan air talks, but it has been set in June. We are waiting for Japan’s reply,” said Porciuncula.

Cebu Air Inc. and Philippine Airlines are both interested in securing new and more access rights to Japan.

Cebu Pacific, the brand of Cebu Air, had said it is still keen on flying to Japan after it abandoned in 2006 its flight entitlements.

The airline unit of JG Summit Holdings Inc. had been awarded by the CAB seven coefficients. However, these were not utilized. Cebu Pacific planned to use a 150-seater Airbus 319 aircraft for its Japan route. However, Japan did not allow the airline to mount flights there using that type of aircraft.

The seven coefficients were later awarded to PAL, which now is utilizing the Japan entitlements.

Before the RP-Japan air talks in June, there is another round of air talks scheduled in the middle of May.

The CAB, according to Porciuncula, will back PAL in its request to increase the flight entitlements from the current four to 14 weekly flights, or an additional 10 flight entitlements.

“We will ask Canada for more flights. In the future, we do not see PAL as the only airline flying to Canada. Cebu Pacific could also be interested. So, as early as now, we have to ask for more entitlements,” said Porciuncula.

Under the existing air-services agreement (ASA) between the Philippines and Canada, PAL and the designated airline of Canada are entitled to field up to four flights per week in each direction. While Canada’s flag carrier Air Canada has yet to launch its maiden flight into the Philippines, PAL, on the other hand, has used up all of the flight entitlements awarded to the Philippine government by Canada under their first air agreement that was signed in January 1997.

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is targeting more than 2,500 retail outlets in Metro Manila by next month to distribute and sell state-subsidized rice at P18.25 and P25 per kg to an initial 400,000 beneficiary-families.

PRELIMINARY data released by the United Coconut Associations of the Philippines (Ucap) revealed that coconut exports from January to March this year went up by 89 percent to 471,685 metric tons (MT) in copra terms.

THE Philippines has signed an air agreement with Macau providing for more flights to China’s leisure and casino capital, said an official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

THE Philippine air panel is going to ask its counterpart in Japan to open up new service points, an official of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) said Wednesday.

SEN. Rodolfo Biazon on Wednesday filed Joint Resolution 11 seeking to suspend the implementation of Republic Act 9367, also known as the Biofuels Act of 2006, until such time that all resources, such as lands, technology, organizational structures and marketing mechanisms needed to ensure the country’s food self-sufficiency, especially on rice, are already in place.

OVER the past years, the rate of mortality and morbidity due to road-traffic accidents has risen to unsettling levels. An annual report released by the Philippine National Police in 2006 recorded a total of 15,064 accidents throughout the country, which resulted in 674 deaths, 3,767 injuries and 10,623 property-damage cases.