THE CIVIL Aeronautics Board (CAB) has assigned to Cebu Pacific, Zest Air and Air Philippines the remaining flight entitlements for the Manila-Kuala Lumpur (KL) route.
Last week, CAB approved the request of Cebu Pacific to mount 720 additional seats per week. The airline unit of JG Summit is currently mounting 10 weekly flights for the Manila-KL route. This translates to 1,800 seats a week.
Cebu Pacific Vice President for marketing and distribution Candice Iyog earlier said the low-cost carrier intends to mount twice daily flights within the year. The twice-a-day flights are equivalent to 2,520 weekly seats.
The CAB also gave its green light to the application of AirphilExpress for 1,260 weekly seat entitlements in the Manila-KL route.
“For the winter schedule, we approved 540 weekly seats and 720 seats for summer schedule. Like the other approvals reached during the en banc, we have yet to draft the order formalizing these approvals,” said CAB lawyer Elena Moro.
Zest Air’s request for 540 additional seats weekly was also given the go signal.
The Philippines and Malaysia amended last June 8 their air services agreement. From 2,300 weekly seats, both air panels agreed to increase with 2,520 additional seats.
The air panel of both countries also agreed on unlimited traffic rights to airports outside of Manila, in keeping with the spirit of Executive Order 29, the implementing order for an open sky policy.
Following this agreement, the CAB assigned last month South East Asian Airlines (Seair) and AirAsia Philippines entitlements to fly to several points in Malaysia.
Seair was given 2,520 seats per week to mount flights between Clark and KL; 1,260 weekly seats to be utilized for flights between Clark and Kota Kinabalu; 540 seats per week to Kuching; another 540 seats to Penang; and the same number of seats to Langkawi.
The RP-Malaysia air services agreement is the first air pact sealed for the year. The CAB is part of the Philippine air panel which negotiates for traffic rights with other countries. The other panel members include the Department of Transportation and Communications, Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Tourism, Department of Trade and Industry, and representatives from the airline companies.
