Clark's Middle East flights to serve OFWs

CLARK FREE PORT, Philippines - Thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Central and Northern Luzon are expected to benefit from the chartered flights offered by Transglobal Airways at the sprawling Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) here.

Clark International Airport Corporation (Ciac) president and chief executive officer (CEO) Victor Jose Luciano said Transglobal Airways will fly via Clark-Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Transglobal flight will make a technical stop in Dhaka, Bangladesh before proceeding to Fujairah, UAE, which is an hour away from Dubai.

Luciano said Transglobal Airways will be using the 160-seater MD-83 aircraft noting that "the flight to the Middle East will greatly benefit the OFWs from Central and Northern Luzon."

Transglobal Airways launched its inaugural flight at DMIA last Friday morning signaling the start of their two times a week chartered flights at the 2,500 hectare civil aviation complex.

It will fly every Monday and Wednesday at DMIA inside the Clark Freeport Zone. The airways charterer is the Kang Pacific.

"This is a new beginning for DMIA especially in bringing flights to the Middle East where it will serve 1.8 million of OFWs working there," Luciano said.

"This will now be the link, it will not be in Metro Manila it will be in Clark," he stressed, "so our workers in the Middle East coming from Regions 1, 2 and 3 and Cordillera will not have to go to Manila and they can take their flights from DMIA."

"It could also serve Filipino travelers going to Europe," he added.

According to Luciano, Tansglobal is a Clark-based airline owned by a Filipino, Taiwanese and Korean group, which decided to expand their operations at the airport

"This flight would be very accessible to our OFWs working in the Middle East and the flight of Transglobal will make a difference for our countrymen abroad," he added.

"This is a start of our connection to the Middle East because there are so many of our countrymen clamoring for more airlines to fly from the Middle East to the Philippines."

Luciano also said Transglobal will be adding their flights to five times a week in the coming months at DMIA, adding that the aviation firm had already invested more than US$10 million with their aircraft and will increase their investment to another US$10 million.

He said they will add another aircraft Boeing 737, which will arrive by the end of June this year to fly the Bangkok-Clark route.

"This is a very good opportunity to introduce Clark to the Middle East," he said.

Luciano also expressed his gratitude to the members of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) for allowing foreign air carriers to operate at DMIA, which was declared by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as the Premier International Gateway of the country.

Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza had earlier said Clark would become the Port of Entry due to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Open Skies roadmap, which is expected to be signed this December.

DMIA is averaging at least 40 flights per week due to the foreign carriers operating in the airport such as Asiana Airlines, Tiger Airways, Air Asia, China Southern Airlines, Deer Air and the local carriers Cebu Pacific, Asian Spirit, and Southeast Asian Airlines. - Sun.Star

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