Cebu Pacific and Tigerair Pursue Myanmar Flights
Filipino travellers may soon have direct access from Manila to Myanmar as two of the country's budget carriers seek the allocation of frequencies between Manila and Yangon. Tigerair Philippines and Cebu Pacific have both filed separate applications with the Civil Aeronautics Board to be granted permission to operate flights to Myanmar.
Copyright Photo: Angelo Agcamaran/PPSG |
Each carrier submitted an individual application to be granted 1,260 weekly seats each between the two countries. As Tigerair Philippines is owned by Cebu Pacific, that represents a total of 2,520 seat allocations for the Cebu Pacific group.
If approved, Cebu Pacific would hold nearly three quarters of the recently negotiated frequencies. Last month, the Philippines and Myanmar agreed to allocate 3,780 weekly seats between the two countries as part of the new air services agreement between the two nations. The last time an agreement was signed was in 1979.
According to Cebu Pacific, the carrier sees huge potential in Myanmar as a destination. "Myanmar is an emergent fellow Asean economy with great trade and tourism potential," said Jorenz Tanada, Cebu Pacific Vice President of Corporate Affairs. "Cebu Pacific, being cognizant of this, would like to play its part in fostering trade and tourism between our two countries."
Cebu Pacific currently operates the most extensive network in the Philippines covering 60 domestic destinations and 34 international destinations. The budget carrier operates a fleet of 51 aircraft including four Airbus A330 wide body aircraft. Cebu Pacific recently announced that it was expanding its long haul international route network to include Sydney, Australia and Kuwait.
No comments