Cebu Pacific News Archive

Lack of reciprocal flight privileges keeps Cebu Pacific international flights grounded at Clark

Cebu Pacific (CEB), the Philippines’ leading domestic airline, cannot fly internationally from Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in Clark, Pampanga, as most regional destinations have denied the budget airline’s application for regular scheduled service despite CEB showing intent and full commitment to the operations.

Bangkok, Macau and Taipei agreed to only restricted charter services, which may not be advertised in their country and holds a one-way carriage clause, because of limited CEB flight entitlements. Hong Kong, on the other hand, rejected the application due to already depleted flight allocations given to Philippine carriers. Only Singapore has given the necessary approvals for CEB to launch regular scheduled service from CRK.

CEB had previously announced earlier this year that it would base a dedicated airbus aircraft at the growing DMIA airport and would launch international services to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Macau & Singapore.

Candice Iyog CEB’s VP for Marketing & Product said “It’s clearly very disappointing that despite us having the aircraft available we haven’t seen other countries matching the already highly liberal policy that is open to foreign carriers at Clark. In our eyes it just goes to highlight the dangers of having non-reciprocal Open Skies whenever & wherever that may be to or from. In this case we have been rejected flights from Clark where foreign airlines are allowed to operate with complete freedom. We support Open Skies whole heartedly as we are about growing the market for air travel. However, that must be fair to all airlines from all countries & not lopsided as it seems to be in this particular case.”

CEB also cited that foreign carriers could operate in Clark without having to work on their entitlements. CEB said that the foreign carriers’ apparent advantage in flight privileges may only be solved via government-to-government air agreements to grant the Philippines the same open skies privilege as granted to foreign airlines flying into Clark.

Iyog finished “We are still hopeful that we are successful in acquiring all necessary approvals from other countries. We at CEB certainly remain committed to growth at DMIA and with our growing fleet we certainly have the tools and the ambition to make it happen sooner rather than later. However, we really find it frustrating that other foreign airlines can grow at DMIA almost at their will while we and other Filipino airlines have to almost beg and borrow the necessary air rights that are required to expand service there.”

Department of Transportation and Communication’s (DOTC) plans to position DMIA as the country’s main international gateway within a decade.