UAE-Manila Route Gets Seven More Cebu Pacific Flights
DUBAI: The UAE’s Civil Aeronautics Board has allowed Filipino airline Cebu Pacific has to operate an additional seven flights weekly from Manila to the UAE
The permission to the airline, which is fully utilising its entitlements with daily flights between Manila and Dubai, will allow it to launch flights to any point in the UAE.
The extra flights come just months after Filipino airlines called on their government to resist pressure from UAE rivals to increase the number of flights they can operate to the country, reported Arabian Business.
Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific have urged the government to “resist any and all pressure to grant unfair advantage to the airlines of the UAE in the form of unjustified and unnecessary disruptive additional rights to serve Manila” in a statement released in August, prior to talks between the two countries, the report said.
Earlier this week, it was announced that Etihad Airways will add three new weekly services between Abu Dhabi and Manila from May 1, 2016, offering a total of 17 return flights per week, the news portal pointed out.
Etihad Airways’ president and CEO, James Hogan, reportedly said the Abu Dhabi-Manila route is one of their airline’s strongest in terms of demand and has been capacity-constrained over the past few years.
Cebu was also designated as an official Philippine carrier to Russia, and was granted thrice weekly flights each from Manila to Moscow and Vladivostok, said the report.
Atty JR Mantaring, Cebu VP for Corporate Affairs, reportedly said: “We sincerely thank and commend the members of the Civil Aeronautics Board for enabling Philippine carriers such as Cebu Pacific to expand operations to key international destinations.
“We’ve always maintained that traffic rights are valuable resources that must be rationally allocated to carriers that are willing and able to utilise and operate flights. We look forward to mounting additional flights to meet the growing travel demand in communities we serve, and opening new routes to stimulate travel in emerging markets.”
Cebu offers flights to a network of over 90 routes on 60 destinations, reported Arabian Business.