PH, South Korea sign new air services agreement

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines and South Korea have agreed to increase flights between the two countries amid growing demand for travel in the Asia Pacific region, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) said.

The new air services agreement was signed after negotiations on April 2-3.

South Korea is one of the 10 “priority countries” that the government wants to have increased connectivity with.

“Both sides agreed to increase flights by 50 percent,” said CAB Executive Director Carmelo Arcilla, who heads the multi-agency Philippine air panel.

Arcilla said South Korea was now the Philippines’ biggest source of foreign tourists.

“We expect the number of South Koreans coming to the Philippines this year to reach more than a million,” he said, noting that this would translate to about 10 percent increase.

Under the previous deal, the Philippines was allowed to fly 19,000 passengers to South Korea every week. South Korea was also allowed the same number of passengers to any point in the Philippines. The new deal would mean both countries would be allowed to fly 28,500 passengers per week.

About half of the previous entitlements are flown out of Manila, although local airlines already have flights to South Korea from secondary points like Cebu, Clark, Caticlan and Kalibo.

Local airlines that have flights to South Korea are Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific and Zest Air. Airlines from South Korea that fly to the Philippines include Asiana Airlines and Jin Air.

The agreement with Seoul is the first increase in flight entitlement signed by the Philippines since the start of the year.

The new ASA is in line with the Aquino administration’s liberalization of air rights. This is seen as key to the government’s target of increasing tourist arrivals to 10 million by 2016 from more than three million in 2010.

The Philippine air panel is composed of representatives from the Department of Transportation and Communications, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Tourism.