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By Darwin G. Amojelar, Reporter
THE Canadian government has granted the
Philippines more flight entitlements to serve the growing demand for
Filipino workers, a member of Manila’s air panel said Monday.
In a telephone interview, Victor Luciano,
president of Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) said the
Canadian government has given the Philippines two additional
frequencies from Manila to the North American country or from point
to point only.
Luciano said that the additional flight
frequencies will be awarded to Philippine Airlines (PAL), the
country’s flag carrier.
PAL currently flies to and from Canada with five
entitlements, as it borrows a flight from Air Canada, which is not
using its entitlements. However, the borrowed entitlement will end
this October.
Jaime Bautista, PAL president, had said that
Vancouver is a growing market, and the airline wanted to increase
its operations to serve this demand. Manila-Vancouver-Manila flights
have a 90-percent load factor.
PAL had requested additional flight entitlements
to Canada two years ago. It said about 80,000 Filipinos are working
in Vancouver, about 60,000 in Alberta and Edmonton, 25,000 to 30,000
in Winnipeg and 20,000 in Montreal.
Canada also approved five frequencies weekly for
cargo flights from Manila to Canada with no capacity restrictions,
Luciano said, adding the flights will end at the Diosdado Macapagal
International Airport (DMIA).
The agreement is under the 5th freedom rights,
the CIAC official said.
At present, the Philippines is modernizing DMIA
as part of the government plan to transform Clark and Subic and
their corridors into a logistics hub.
Based on the planned development of DMIA, the
5,365-square meter passenger terminal will be expanded to 60,000
square meters by 2015 and to 140,000 square meters by 2025 to
accommodate the transfer of Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s
international operations.
DMIA will also construct a cargo terminal with
at least 33,750 square meters by 2015, increasing this to 96,750
square meters by 2025 for international cargo.
For domestic cargo, the airport will build a
13,500-square meter terminal by 2015 and expand this to 33,750
square meters by 2025.
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