Cebu Pacific Air (5J, Manila Ninoy Aquino International) and Philippines AirAsia (Z2, Manila Ninoy Aquino International) have joined Philippine Airlines in seeking traffic rights to serve destinations in India, which would require the update of the bilateral Air Services Agreement (ASA) between the countries, Travel Weekly Asia has reported.
Cebu Pacific is reportedly looking to launch services to Mumbai International, while the Filipino unit of AirAsia Group is keen to fly to Delhi International. The flag carrier has already announced it is looking to establish scheduled services to each of the cities by the end of 2018.
According to the ch-aviation capacity module, currently, no scheduled flights connecting India and the Philippines are offered. The lack of air connectivity is mostly caused by the very restrictive terms imposed by the bilateral ASA dating back to 1949. The countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding on updating the ASA in 2005 but it has thus far not been put in place.
Under the terms of the MoU, designated Filipino carriers - one or more - would get the rights to connect points in the Philippines with Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai, all via Bangkok Suvarnabhumi. In return, the Indian carriers would get the right to fly to Manila Ninoy Aquino International and three other destinations in the Philippines, also via Bangkok.
According to the report, talks on finalising the new ASA could commence in July 2018 as both countries are interested in boosting air connectivity.
Separately, the government of the Philippines is also looking at updating its ASAs with Papua New Guinea and Switzerland. The former currently only allows for up to 600 seat capacity per week between the countries, while the latter is outdated and impractical as it only allows for flights to and from the capital Bern, which is a small regional airport, rather than Zurich or Geneva.
