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Friday, December 05, 2003
Qatar may not push thru with Doha-Cebu flights
By Jessica B. Natad/Cherr T. Lim
QATAR Airways may not go on with its Doha-Cebu inaugural flight on Dec. 10.
This if the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) does not return its right to stop over in Singapore and pick up passengers, said Mario Hachem, Qatar Airways area manager.
In an interview yesterday, he also told Sun.Star the airline would ask President Arroyo to intervene in the matter.
This developed after the CAB yesterday explained that existing agreements prevented it from allowing Qatar Airways to stop by Singapore on its flights to Cebu from Doha, Qatar.
“Qatar Airways cannot fly between Cebu and Singapore simply because it is not allowed to under the current RP-Qatar bilateral air agreement.
What it is allowed to service is the route between Cebu and Doha, the capital of Qatar,” CAB said in a statement to Sun.Star.
Tomas Mañalac, executive director of CAB, made this clarification after both the Cebu Visitors and Convention Bureau (CVCB) and the Cebu City Marriott Hotel, the would-be official hotel of Qatar Airways in Cebu, sought an explanation on the about-face the CAB made three weeks after it approved Qatar Airways’ application for fifth freedom traffic rights last October.
Fifth freedom rights would have allowed Qatar to pick up passengers in Singapore before flying on to Cebu, and vice versa.
Mañalac took back CAB’s approval, saying the board had “made a mistake.”
In yesterday’s statement, Mañalac said: “In the absence of a bilateral agreement on the fifth freedom issue, the CAB cannot unilaterally grant such rights.”
With the airline to become the only link between southern Philippines and the Middle East, the CAB official said there was no reason for the airline “to feel aggrieved over the disallowance of fifth-freedom carriage.”
Damaged
But the airline was clearly not satisfied, as Hachem said if the Singapore stopover was not re-approved, relations between Qatar and the Philippines could be damaged, affecting also the existing Manila-Qatar flights.
In a Nov. 27 letter, CVCB chairman Patrick Gregorio appealed to Mañalac to consider the effects of the board’s decision on Cebu tourism.
He said that a few years ago, Gulf Air had already tried to fly between Doha and Cebu without a stopover at a third point “and failed to sustain a viable operation into Cebu.”
The board yesterday assured that it was looking out for the province’s interests.
It cited the recent agreements negotiated by the agency as additional Bahrain-Cebu rights, obtained in October 2003; new Vietnam-Cebu rights, obtained in July 2003, new rights linking Cebu to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Fujairah and other points in the United Arab Emirates, March 2003; new Japan-Cebu rights, October 2002; new Korea-Cebu rights, November 2001; and approvals for Busan-Cebu charter flights by Korean carriers.
Over 50 foreign airlines have entitlements to fly to Cebu, the statement said. Most are just not used.
The Philippine air panel is now in Palau negotiating for flights from Palau to Cebu, Davao and Pampanga.
(December 5, 2003 issue)
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