RP gov't assures overseas workers of more flights to the Middle East

MANILA, Philippines - The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) has assured local recruitment companies that it will provide additional flights in the next two months to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) bound for the Middle East. The assurance came amid the government's move to address shortage in airline seats for Filipino passengers going to the said region.

During a recent hearing at the House of Representatives, lawyer Carmelo Arcilla, CAB executive director, said two Middle East air carriers would provide two additional flights within the coming weeks.

Arcilla said Emirates Air would add one flight to the Manila-Dubai route this month, while Qatar Airways would add another to the Manila-Doha flight by June.

Arcilla confirmed reports that the Philippine Airlines (PAL) could fly to the Middle East. However, he said the flag carrier had closed down its Middle East market since 1998.

According to CAB officials, PAL has unused flight entitlements, and has gone on a code sharing agreement with Middle East carriers.

Arcilla said the CAB could not force PAL to service the Middle East market after the company made its “business decision".

The CAB said it had opened applications for other air carriers to fly the Manila-Middle East route amid "severe shortage" of airline seats in the region.

It said airline company “Spirits of Manila" had received a temporary operating permit from the CAB. However, the company failed to operate since last year due to lack of aircraft.

At the House hearing, Nueva Ecija Rep. Renato Diaz, proposed a “change (in) polic(ies) so that local airlines (can) utilize their entitlements immediately."

He said that if carriers given entitlements fail to fly within six months, the government could give their entitlements to other airlines.

The lawmaker also proposed granting entitlements to foreign carriers if local carriers won't be able to provide flights. He said portions of the income should go to the government, and not to the local carriers that failed to provide flights.

Also, Diaz urged the government to allow foreign airlines to offer charter flights from Clark to Middle East airports.

He likewise pushed for the opening of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport and Clark airport to help address flight shortage, and called for the immediate ratification of the open skies policies that would allow Clark and other regional airports to accept foreign airlines .

Recruitment companies earlier complained of losing millions of pesos due to lack of airline seats, which delayed the deployment of OFWs to the Middle East. - GMANews.TV

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