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Friday, September 15, 2006
Agency gives airline 5 years to operate
By Dante M. Fabian
CLARK ECOZONE -- Officials of the Clark International Airport Corporation (Ciac) on Thursday lauded the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) for granting a five-year license to Singapore-based budget airline Tiger Airways to operate in the country.
Ciac president and chief executive officer (CEO) Victor Jose Luciano said the granting of the five-year license to Tiger Airways is expected to boost growth at the operations of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) because of the continued regular flights in Clark.
Luciano said the granting of the license to the biggest budget airlines in Asia is an offshoot of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's Executive Order (EO) 500-A, which lifts restrictions imposed on airlines flying to the DMIA to improve arrival and departure and spur growth in the immediate community.
EO 500-A delineates territorial and jurisdictional coverage and the type of services available to foreign carriers that signed air services agreements with the Philippines. It grants all of civil aviation entitlements and other forms of air traffic access, both passenger and cargo or a combination, toward the development and enhancement of small airports as new international gateways of the country.
Luciano said before the issuance of the five-year permit, Tiger Airways operated in a provisional authority, which is renewable every three or six months.
At present, the Singapore-based budget airline flies to Macau-to-Clark (Manila) and Singapore to Clark and vice-versa. It also flies to Australia (Darwin) via Singapore.
Tony Davis, Tiger Airways CEO, said since its initial operations in Clark in April 2004 the Singapore-Manila (Clark) route has increased capacity nearly fivefold.
Tiger Airways started with three flights a week to Manila (Clark) in April 2004 and increased this to five flights a week in June 2004. Last April 2006, the flights were increased to 14 a week.
Davis earlier said that the airline company is pleased to be adding more capacity on the popular route. "This means our savvy passengers and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) will be able to travel more frequently between Singapore and the Philippines," he said.
"With our new double daily service, Tiger Airways is one of the largest international airline to serve the Philippines," he said.
Tiger Airways is Singapore's largest low-fare airline, serving 13 cities in seven countries (Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Macau SAr, the Philippines, Australia and Indonesia). This will increase to 16 destinations when Tiger Airways flies to the Southern Chinese cities of Guangzhou, Haikou, and Shenzhen.
(September 15, 2006 issue)
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