MANILA – The Philippines and Saudi Arabia have doubled their bilateral flight frequencies following a successful commercial air rights negotiations early this week, a local business daily reported Wednesday. Quoting an official of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) Executive Director Carmelo A. Arcilla, BusinessWorld said “the parties signed a new agreement increasing the allowed frequency of each country from the current 10 flights per week to 21 on the route Philippines to Jeddah/Riyadh.” “The parties also agreed on unlimited traffic rights between Saudi Arabia and Clark and also between Philippines and Damman,” he added. The Philippines and Saudi Arabia held air talks Sept. 24-25 at the CAB office in Pasay City. The 10 frequencies of the Philippines to Saudi Arabia are currently held by Philippines Airlines. (PAL). Candice A. Iyog, Cebu Pacific vice-president for marketing and distribution, said: “We will file applications soon for the entitlements.” Early this month, the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates concluded a successful negotiation in Abu Dhabi. The said negotiations doubled to 28 frequencies per week the 14 frequencies previously entitled to the Philippines. The negotiations also gave unlimited traffic rights between any points outside Manila and any points in UAE. Last Aug. 27-28, the Philippines and Australia also had air talks, but no air rights expansion was agreed as existing seat entitlements of 6,000 are not yet fully allocated, Mr. Arcilla had said. Before that, the country's air talks with Singapore on Aug. 15-16 were stalled, with both negotiating panels agreeing to resume talks “after six months,” due to “issues on freedom traffic rights.” Last April 2 and 3, the Philippines had a successful air rights negotiations with South Korea. The talks expanded both countries' seat entitlements to 28,500 per week from the previous 19,000. The Seoul negotiations were the first air talks for the Philippines this year. The additional 9,500 seat entitlements were distributed last month to three carriers namely, Zest Airways with 3,060 seat entitlements per week. Cebu Pacific and PAL were both granted with 3,220 seat entitlements per week. This year's air talks came after President Benigno S. C. Aquino III signed Executive Order 29 March 14, 2011, which mandated negotiators to offer unlimited air rights to the country's secondary gateways including Clark. Under the “pocket-open skies policy” of the Aquino administration, the country concluded four successful air talks last year. The Philippines had air negotiations with Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, and Vietnam last year. These air negotiations granted unlimited rights to the foreign carriers to all points in the country except for Manila, previous reports showed. The country had inconclusive air talks with Indonesia and Taiwan in June and December last year. – Agencies
