BUDGET carriers are seeking to slice a portion of the newly bagged seat allocations to Singapore, a filing with the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) showed.
Cebu Pacific, Tigerair Philippines, and AirAsia Zest are separately asking the regulator to allot them 1,260 weekly seats each to operate the Manila-Singapore route.
The petitions will be heard on March 11 at the regulator’s office in Pasay City.
The Philippines and Singapore in February agreed to modernize their existing air-services agreement, paving way for the increased capacity entitlement between Manila and Singapore to 18,888 seats per week, from 17,627 weekly seats.
Iloilo and Bacolod were also added as co-terminal points for Singaporean carriers, in addition to Cebu, Davao and Puerto Princesa. This means that Singaporean carriers can fly to Cebu, for example, and then proceed to Davao.
Both countries also agreed to increase the limit on the frequencies for fifth freedom, from eight weekly flights to 10 flights per week. Hence, a Singaporean carrier, for example, can operate a route that starts from Singapore to Manila and proceeds to Osaka, Japan, 10 times a week.
The two nations also agreed on third-country code sharing, which allows airlines from the two countries to collaborate with airlines from third countries in marketing services between the Philippines and Singapore.
The Asean neighbors are embarking on a joint campaign that will significantly hike the two countries’ tourism receipts.
The general idea of the joint-tourism drive is to allow some of Singapore’s 11 million annual European visitors to go to southern Philippines, where they will spend a few days in prime tourist spots like Samal Island, and then go back to the city-state for their return flights to Europe, Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr. said in a recent interview.
The government aims to generate $4.6 billion in tourism revenues by the end of the Aquino administration. It also aims to attract 6 million tourists and create 3 million jobs by 2016. This would allow the sector to contribute 6.35 percent to the gross domestic product.