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CEBU Pacific has asked the Civil Aeronautics Board
(CAB) to reallocate its flight entitlements to Japan.
The regulator earlier recalled
the entitlements after the airline unit of the Gokongwei family-led
JG Summit Holdings Inc. failed to use them.
In a petition before the CAB, the
carrier said it wants to reallocate the 4.5 coefficients to Japan.
The company said it will fly the Manila-Cebu-Osaka- Kansai route and
vise versa using its Airbus 319 and A320.
“Parties opposed to the
granting of this application must file a written opposition . . .
failure on the part of any interested party to file opposition shall
be construed as a waiver of this right,” the CAB said.
The regulator earlier granted the
entitlements under question to rivals Philippine Airlines (PAL) and
Pacific East Asia Cargo (PEAC).
Under the Philippine-Japan air
service agreement, Cebu Pacific has seven flight entitlements to
Japan.
The same agreement said frequency
entitlements are measured by coefficients, with one roundtrip flight
equivalent to one coefficient using a Boeing 575 aircraft, which has
a seating capacity of 228; 1.5 coefficients for an Airbus 330, which
can carry 250 to 293 passengers; and two coefficients for Boeing
747, which has a seating capacity of 347 to 490.
PAL has 47 coefficients, of which
45 is in use. The cargo operator Asian Overnight Express Corp. has
one.
Japan is the Philippines’
second-largest source of foreign arrivals, next to the United
States. An estimated 300,000 Japanese fly to the Philippines each
year, while some 170,000 overseas Filipino workers travel to Japan.
The Philippines had wanted an
open-skies pact with Japan owing to the continuous increase in
number of passengers to and from the country.
The open-skies policy removes
limitations on frequency and capacity for both passenger and cargo
planes.
Cebu Pacific services Singapore,
Hong Kong and Seoul, South Korea, Bangkok, Thailand, and flies to 17
domestic destinations.
 --Darwin
G. Amojelar
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