DOT COURTS AIRLINES TO OPEN FLIGHTS FROM CEBU TO AUSTRALIA
The Philippine government has granted Australian carriers the fifth freedom right to fly onward to a third country
Aside from China, the Department of Tourism (DOT) is aiming to boost the number of international flights to Cebu.
It specifically wants to connect Cebu to Australia and Europe.
Erwin Balane, DOT’s head of Route Development Team, said the agency is seeking to provide passengers, both local and foreign, a seamless flight experience with Australia, one of the country’s key markets.
“We are looking at the Australian carriers because based on our latest air service agreement with Australia, the Philippine government provided them with the fifth freedom right to fly onward to a third country. If you look at the routes of Australia, they are actually doing the ‘kangaroo’ route which is from Australia to Singapore onward to different destinations either in Middle East or in Europe,” Balane said.
Under a fifth freedom route, an airline is authorized to stop in another country other than its own before heading to another destination or a third country, Balane said at the sidelines of the Routes Asia 2019 held here.
“We are looking also into that kind of route, from any point in Australia going to Cebu onward to the northeast Asia like Hong Kong, Tokyo, Incheon and other parts of the northeast Asian markets,” he said.
As of now, the country’s route development team is still in early phases of negotiation with airlines that are interested to create the flight route.
“It is not easy to lure an airline to fly because they are looking not only at the destination but also more of the sustainability of the passenger traffic because at the end of the day, it is still the numbers that will sustain the aviation business,” said Balane.
The DOT is also attracting European arlines to mount direct flights to the Philippines. In fact, the agency is planning to join route events in Europe.
Balane admitted, however, that it is “quite difficult to encourage these arilines to fly to destinations other than Manila because they will be carrying bigger and wider aircraft which of course is very hard to fill.” “We will also look into the air service agreements between the two countries if it will allow us to increase our frequencies,” he said.
Australia is Central Visayas’ sixth key tourist source market in 2018.
We are looking also into that kind of (‘kangaroo’) route, from any point in Australia going to Cebu onward to the northeast Asia like Hong Kong, Tokyo, Incheon and other parts of the northeast Asian markets.
ERWIN BALANE
Head of DOT’s Route Development Team