New Rounds of Air Talks Scheduled for 2014

The Philippine Government is continuing its efforts to open Philippine skies and liberalise air agreements as it prepares for new rounds of air talks with a number of countries in 2014. 

Image Copyright: Maks Maydachenko/Flickr

According to Carmelo Arcilla, Executive Director of the Civil Aeronautics Board, the Philippine air panel is scheduled to hold air talks with Singapore, France, and New Zealand in the first quarter of 2014. 

"We have yet to confirm an exact date for the talks in France, but it's scheduled in January," said Arcilla. "Air service talks with Singapore is scheduled on February 5-6 and with New Zealand on March 5-6."

Under the current bilateral agreement with France that was established in 1969, Philippine carriers are only permitted to fly to France once per week. However, no carriers from either country are currently operating a direct route between the two nations. Philippine Airlines has indicated that it would like to begin direct service between Manila and Paris pending the establishment of an updated air agreement. "Europe is a big market, and we want to resume flying to it to re-establish the links between us and them," said Arcilla. 

In terms of neighbouring Singapore, the Philippines is seeking to expand seat entitlements with the nation as Singapore is a major market for the Philippines and one of the largest in terms of seat entitlements. The Philippines currently holds 43,487 seat entitlements from Singapore. However, all seat entitlements are fully utilized at present resulting in the need for more in order to support further expansion. The Philippine air panel made an attempt last year to secure additional seat entitlements with Singapore but failed as a result of unresolved "substantive and operational issues."

Although New Zealand is a relatively small market, local carriers have expressed an interest in developing the market. "The parties want to talk, so we can look at the possibility of enhancing a more open grant of rights," said Arcilla. 

Meanwhile, air talks between the Philippines and Russia were scheduled for November 12-13 but had to be postponed following a request by Russia to delay the talks due to internal concerns in the country. "Philippines-Russia talks scheduled in Manila did not push through, at the request of Russia, because of a pressing matter in Russia," said Arcilla. 

Although Arcilla was unaware of what the internal concern was in Russia, he indicated that talks would be rescheduled for another date in the future although the two countries have yet to establish a date. At present, Russia and the Philippines does have a mutual air service agreement that was forged in the 1960's or 1970's. However, the agreement does not provide seat entitlements to either country.

The Philippines is seeking to update the agreement in order to capture the Russian tourist market. "It's a fast-growing economy with increasing number of travelers. It has good market potential," said Arcilla. 

Although there are no scheduled services between the Philippines and Russia, Philippine Airlines has began offering chartered flights to Russia's Far East using its own aircraft as well as aircraft from Russian carrier Vladivostok Air. The chartered flights are operated in partnership with Biletur, the largest tour company in Far East Russia. According to the Department of Tourism, more than 21,000 Russians visited the Philipines in the first eight months of 2013.