XIAMEN AIR will launch new routes to the Philippines, including Fushou-Cebu and Quanzhou-Cebu this year.
This is in support of Philippine Consulate General Julius Caesar A. Flores’s economic diplomacy thrusts, underscoring the sister-city partnership between Cebu and Xiamen.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the announcement was made by Xiamen Air Travel General Manager Deng Dongtao during a dinner reception at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in China’s Eastern Seaboard city this month.
Flores was guest of honor of the event attended by around 600 guests, including Xiamen Air Vice General Manager Huang Guohui.
Flores said the Consulate General has always underscored the importance of air links which contribute in nurturing relations between countries, regions and peoples; enhancing cooperation in trade, business, tourism and people-to-people contacts.
Xiamen Air reopened the Xiamen-Cebu route in March 2016, flying three times weekly.
The new routes to be launched in 2017 are seen to strengthen the air linkages between the Philippines and Fujian province, including Xiamen-Manila and Xiamen.
Following the warming of relations between the Philippines and China under the Duterte administration, China has promised more economic benefits to the country.
Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua said there would be 1 million tourists and, probably, 2 million who will visit the country in 2017.
Zhao sees China becoming the Philippines’s “No. 1 trading partner.” Not just in trade alone, where a $3-billion deal between the Bank of China and the Department of Trade and Industry is in the offing, but “there will be a dramatic increase in infrastructure and investments.”
He said soft loans will be available through the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank, of which the Philippines is a founding member (and was the last to join). Private investors may also avail themselves of commercial loans.
Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo said recently stakeholders from China told her it would be easy to attract 2 million Chinese tourists as early as next year.
“Next year would be a good year for the Department of Tourism because the arrival will increase significantly. I’m only eyeing 1-million increase every year and with China giving us 2 million. Then, if you have 6 million now plus 2 million, then you could have a total of 8 million arrivals next year,” Teo was quoted as saying to the media.
Xiamen Air is the only all-Boeing fleet of a Chinese carrier.
In 2016 it flew 3.6 million passengers with a gross income of RMB460 million and a net income of RMB22 million.
Xiamen Air Travel forms part of the Xiamen Air’s conglomerate providing travel and tour services to its passengers. Xiamen Air and Xiamen Air Travel are subsidiary companies of China Southern Airlines.
Xiamen Air is one of the Consulate General’s valuable airline partners in its economic diplomacy thrusts, including promotion of the Philippines as a tourist destination to the Fujian/China market.
Aside from Xiamen Air, other Chinese airlines that fly out of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport are Cathay Pacific, Air China, China Southern and Dragon Airlines (formerly Dragonair).
Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (Pal) mounts flights to seven cities in China that include Hong Kong, Shanghai, Bejing, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Jinjiang and Macau.
Low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific flies to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Macau, Beijing, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Lijiang, Haikou, Zhenzhen, Xian and Ningbo in Xinjiang province.