Friday, January 18, 2008 Chartered flights to draw Chinese tourists in Clark
CLARK FREEPORT -- The new chartered flights of China Southern Airlines at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) from mainland China are expected to draw thousands of tourists into the Clark Freeport Zone.
The airlines started its twice-a-week chartered flights to DMIA on Friday.
Clark International Airport Corporation (Ciac) president Victor Jose Luciano said the entry of China is a welcome development, as it will further boost the development of the civil aviation complex.
"This initiates China flights to Clark and we see this as a big development because of the potential of having Chinese tourists and businessmen coming to our region to invest," Luciano said.
"We are happy about the development that Fontana has taken this initiative, we will give them the full support," he added.
Luciano vowed to support the efforts of China Southern Airlines to mount regular flights to Clark.
"We should prepare Clark for tourism infrastructure so that the momentum will be kept and at the same time we are building and expanding the airport," Luciano stressed.
China Southern Airlines will start their twice-a-week Guangzhou-Clark chartered flights on January 18 and will arrive during Fridays and Sundays.
The airline will be using Boeing 737 aircraft with a capacity of 166 seats.
Ciac is preparing a grand welcome for the inaugural flight, which is expected to bring in 166 passengers.
Cultural presentations will greet passengers upon their arrival at 7 p.m.
Luciano and other officials of Fontana will lead the holding of a simple ceremony for the arrival of the Chinese passengers.
Norman Ng, managing director of the Jimei Group in the Philippines, said the Boeing 737 leaves Guangzhou at 5 p.m. every Friday and 2 p.m. every Sunday. Estimated time of departure from Clark is 7 p.m. on Fridays and 4 p.m. on Sundays.
The Macapagal airport averages 54 flights per week, both international and domestic, conducted by various air carriers operating at the 2,500-hectare airport.
In 2007, DMIA posted 533,619 arrivals in both international and domestic flights surpassing the 488,756 2006 figures by 44,863.
Among the airlines operating at DMIA are Asian Airlines of South Korea, Air Asia and Tiger Airways of Singapore. Domestic flights are operated by South East Asian Airlines (Seair), Cebu Pacific and Asian Spirit.
From January to May 2007, Shanghai Airlines also conducted chartered flights to DMIA bringing in hundreds of Chinese tourists from the mainland while another chartered flight was also conducted by Deer Air in December. (RGN)
