Budget carriers seek additional seats to Singapore

MANILA, Philippines – Following the signing of the Philippines and Singapore air services agreement, budget carriers Cebu Air Incorporated and its sister airline Tiger Airways Philippines, and AirAsia Zest are now applying for additional seat entitlements to fly to Singapore.

The applications of the budget airlines have been consolidated by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB).

In the consolidated application, the 3 budget carriers sought additional entitlements to Singapore in accordance with the recently concluded agreement entered into by the governments of the Philippines and Singapore on February 13.

All 3 are seeking additional weekly seats of 1,260 each.

Singapore is a gateway of European investors and tourists to ASEAN. As such, the country should avail more of this opportunity, Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said earlier.

The signing of the new memorandum of understanding on air services increased the current capacity entitlements between Manila and Singapore by 7.1% to 18,888 seats per week from the current 17,627 seats per week for each country, CAB Executive Director Carmelo Arcilla said.

The list of co-terminal points for Singaporean carrier that currently includes Cebu, Davao, and Puerto Princesa was expanded to include Iloilo and Bacolod.

Both countries also agreed to increase the limit on the frequencies for 5^th freedom to 10 from 8per week.

Fifth freedom rights refer to the right to fly passengers to third countries from a country with which an airline’s resident country has an outstanding air services agreement.

“This means that a Singaporean carrier can operate a route that starts from Singapore to Manila and proceeds to Osaka, 10 times a week,” Arcilla said. 

The Philippines and Singapore also agreed on third country code sharing, allowing airlines of the two countries to collaborate with airlines from third countries in marketing services between the two countries.

The Aquino administration is pursuing more air talks as part of its open skies policy under Executive Order 29. The administration aims to double tourist arrivals to 10 million by 2016.

The Philippines is also eyeing air talks with Australia, Russia, Taiwan, Turkey, and Qatar this year.

The Philippines also concluded air talks with Ethiopia, South Africa, Macau, Canada, Myanmar, New Zealand, Singapore, and France. – Rappler.com