Philippine Carriers Cry Foul Over Emirates Airlines

The two leading carriers in the Philippines, Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines, are crying foul after the Civil Aeronautics Board approved an application permitting Emirates Airlines of Dubai to extend their temporary permit enabling the carrier to continue operating three daily flights between Manila and Dubai, which currently exceeds the number permitted under the existing bilateral aviation agreement. 

Image Source: Emirates
Under the current agreement, Emirates is only permitted to operate up to fourteen weekly flights between Manila and the United Arab Emirates. But Emirates is already using all of its entitlements with its two daily flights between Manila and Dubai. 

It has been operating a third daily flight, borrowing entitlements held by Philippine Airlines in a code-share agreement, until the Civil Aeronautics Board nullified the agreement due to competitive concerns. But the recent extension of the temporary permit enables Emirates to continue operating its third daily flight beyond December 26. 

The United Arab Emirates and the Philippines are expected to meet early next year to renegotiate and expand the existing air services agreement at the request of Emirates.

According to the Philippine carriers, the decision made by the Civil Aeronautics Board can be considered "mockery" and is tainted with abuse as there is no legal basis or justification beyond economic reasoning for Emirates.

"We believe that the grant of these unwarranted extra flights to Middle Eastern carriers distorts competition and undermines the investments of Philippine air carriers in building a truly competitive air route to the UAE," said Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines in a jointly released statement. "If Emirates truly wants to expand its service into the Philippines, it has every opportunity to put up new flights to Clark, Cebu, or other Philippine international airports outside of Manila."

The existing agreement enables all carriers to mount unlimited flights from the UAE to Cebu, Clark, or Davao. Cebu Pacific would like to obtain the seven frequencies currently held by Philippine Airlines, which are not being used. However, they are not interested in an expanded air services agreement as the carrier believes there is more than sufficient capacity between the two countries.

Emirates is applying for fourteen additional frequencies to Manila, which would enable the carrier to operate up to four daily flights. The carrier recently brought in the world's largest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380, on a special flight between Dubai and Manila. 

It was believed that the special flight was to serve as a test to identify if the larger aircraft could be deployed on the route to increase capacity. However, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines has not yet released regulatory guidelines on the use of the A380 aircraft at Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Industry insiders believe this is what forced the Civil Aeronautics Board to extend the temporary flight rights.

As the agreement between the two countries is regulated by number of flights, rather than number of seats, using the much larger A380 aircraft would be a way for Emirates to help maintain its seat capacity to the Philippines without the need for a third daily flight.

Technical studies have already been submitted by Airbus to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines indicating the viability of operating the aircraft at the airport in Manila. However, the Civil Aviation Authority has not released a decision as there is still concern over daytime congestion.

Meanwhile, Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific have no interest in pursuing talks with the United Arab Emirates, insisting that the proposal stretches beyond the traffic needs of the region. "We look to CAB to work with the Philippine air carriers in growing the Philippine aviation industry and allow us to compete with foreign carriers in a level playing field," said the Philippine carriers. 

The rivalry between Emirates and Philippine Airlines dates back to 2012 when the two carriers were competing for the rights to serve the Manila to Dubai route. Both Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific began operating direct flights between the two countries in 2013. 

While increased capacity and competition is of benefit to passengers as it often translates to lower air fares, the protectionist attitude being adopted by Philippine carriers suggests that it is not up to the challenge of competing with Emirates, a carrier that was voted World's Best Airline in 2013.

13 comments:

  1. Emirates serves all inhabited continents and it is not afraid of competition because it is truly a 5-star air carrier. Besides, it can funnel any passenger using Dubai as the connection point to all inhabited continents; example, a passenger going to Rio de Janeiro from Manila does not have problem making multiple stops as Emirates flies nonstop (from Dubai) to almost all its destinations whether in Los Angeles, Sydney, Tokyo, London or Johannesburg. My advise to Philippine CAB: Codeshare with Emirates because the demand for (Emirates) services is very, very high! Accost those who are making money and share their wealth! Long live capitalism!

    ReplyDelete
  2. On the contrary, EK operating the A380 would in fact be an efficient option both for NAIA and EK without the need for extra traffic rights. As long as it arrives at midnight or past midnight, and leaves before 4am when airport activity is low NAIA can take the A380.

    The A380 was precisely built for congested airport to take away smaller planes and reducing aircraft movement while increasing passenger numbers.

    It also forces NAIA to do a major rethink of how the present infrastructure would fare using the planes. Nangangapa na naman as usual.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have never seen any problems at congested Los Angeles International Airport (Tom Bradley) accommodating A380 aircrafts of Qantas, Korean, Asiana and China Southern in the middle of the day. The 747 arcraft is almost similar to the A380 in length, width and height. And Tom Bradley has really expanded recently. True, Emirates A380 should land at Manila International at a time when there is less airport activity (midnight).

    ReplyDelete
  4. I feel sorry for the Philippine carriers. They were given all the opportunity to fly the route being flown by Emirates but instead of flying the route, they came up with so many excuses not to fly it. Now that they saw Emirates succeeding where they did not, they want to take it away from Emirates. Not fair!

    I hope CAB will side with the 5-star Emirates because our hardworking countrymen deserve 5-star service whenever they come home.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Emirates cant expand because of restriction.they only allow up to 14Xweekly flights ,more than that will put cab in hot water.emirate should introduce flight to cebu or elsewhere if they want to expand since its part of open skies except naia.

      Delete
    2. CAB has the mandate to extend the entitlements of Emirates by citing the welfare of the passengers as the passengers needs are not adequately served by the Philippine carriers.

      Incidentally, Emirates claimed they did not exceed their entitlements and will follow the CAB decision.

      Delete
    3. Exactly....If the business (Emirates) is making money , it will always be a target of controversy. Come on, be nice!!! Kudos to Emirates. I will fly them when I am ready to fly to Johannesburg, South Africa from Los Angeles!

      Delete
  5. Ok lahat bigyan ng temporary to increase flights maraming uuwi dahil xmas stupid CAB should be fair...

    ReplyDelete
  6. The difference with EK and Philippine carriers on the Dubai route is not all passenger have Dubai as final destination. A lot of these passengers have an onward connecting flight with EK. That is why they can mount more flights on the same route

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A phenomenal world class airline. It has made business and vacation travel very comforting. I Hope to see other carriers follow what Emirates has been doing!

      Delete
  7. Our local carriers are being presumptuous to consider Emirates a competitor. PAL and CebuPac serve a different kind of traveler; a traveler willing to fly to Dubai in a plane that's as comfortable as a bus plying the EDSA route. People who choose Emirates just want real service.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The EDSA bus analogy is perfect. The more flights, the more investors copme in. If the airport was better managed, it could accept more flights and the A380 was purpose built for this sort of market with limited capacity. What is PAL afraid of? They can't service the market profitably anyway - are we all supposed to wait around for them to get their act together?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pero cuando? Cuando?, Cuando?".......... Hay caray!!!!!!!! Que pena, pena, pena!!! From Zamboanga with care!!!

      Delete

Powered by Blogger.