RP, S. Korea agree to new air pact
RP, S. Korea agree to new air pact
Associated Press, Manila
The Philippines and South Korea, hoping to perk up tourism in
the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., have
negotiated a new air agreement allowing each side to increase
weekly flights between Manila and Seoul from 13 to 16, a
Philippine official said Saturday.
Under the new agreement, which was concluded in Seoul Thursday
after two days of talks, Korean Airlines and Asiana Airlines
could fly a maximum 5,200 passengers weekly using large Boeing
jumbo jets, said Foreign Undersecretary Franklin Ebdalin.
Ebdalin noted that Philippine Airlines, currently the only
commercial airline flying to South Korea, uses Airbus jets or
smaller Boeing planes that carry fewer passengers.
In June, the Civil Aeronautics Board allowed Cebu Pacific Air
to fly to South Korea, but the airline hasn't announced when this
will begin. Cebu Pacific said it was negotiating to lease three
B757 jets, which also are smaller than jumbos, for international
flights.
Ebdalin said Philippine negotiators in the air talks were
pushing for greater flight capacity rather than frequency, but
the Koreans refused.
"So that it would be equal and to balance it, what we wanted
was that the entitlement be expressed in terms of seat capacity
not frequency because with frequency ... it would be a question
of having bigger planes," Ebdalin said.
He said the Philippine Department of Transportation and
Communication, the lead agency in the air talks, accepted the
terms out of concern for increasing tourism.
"There will be more tourists in the sense that there will be
additional flights. That's all, but we don't know what the
effects would be on Philippine Airlines," he said.
He said that based on last year's statistics, there are only
about 158,000 Korean tourists that visit the Philippines yearly.
With increased frequency, including an additional flight in
the summer, plus their bigger aircraft, Korean carriers could
carry more than double that number, Ebdalin said. He added that
the Koreans would get the difference from passengers from third
countries, particularly the U.S., who would be traveling to the
Philippines.
He said the Philippine Airlines could not compete with the
Korean carriers' lower fares for this market because unlike them,
it has not received financial assistance from the government to
tide it over the current crisis.
The global air travel industry took a dive in the aftermath of
the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
The Philippines is suffering more from the decline because of
terrorist activities in the south where a Muslim extremist group
is still holding hostage a U.S. couple seized from a resort
island in May along with another American and 17 Filipinos.