The Philippine government has proposed to the Turkish government that the Air Services Agreement (ASA) for new entitlements between the two countries be concluded in 2010.
Porvenir Porciuncula, Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) deputy executive director, said “the Turkish government wants it (ASA) to be done this November or December, but we have our commitments already. We then proposed it to be done by 2010.”
On the other hand, Undersecretary Franklin Ebdalin of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and concurrently one of the members of the Philippine panel, said “the Turkish airlines want new routes and we are studying on that.”
Ebdalin said that airline operators in Turkey could very well capitalize on the growing tourism industry of the Philippines and operating a direct or even a chartered flight here could jump-start more economic cooperation between the two countries.
”The Turkish airline and other airlines want more additional routes, aside from what they have at this moment,” Ebdalin said.
Meanwhile, Adnan Basaga, Turkish ambassador to the Philippines, said he will convince leading airline operators in Turkey to start their flights between their country and the Philippines.
“Turkish airlines fly to most key destinations in the world but not to the Philippines. The Filipinos can use the hub point of Istanbul as a gateway to Europe through direct flights from Manila,” Basaga said.
He said that Turkish airline representatives have already started visiting Manila to explore flight opportunities between Turkey and the Philippines.
Citing official records, he said, Turkey, with a 78 million population, hosts 22 million tourists every year, making it one of the world’s top 10 foreign tourists destinations.
Earlier, the governments of the Philippines and Finland got new entitlements: From Helsinki-Manila (vice versa) four weekly frequencies; Finland-Clark (vice versa) seven weekly frequencies; other points in the Philippines and Finland, seven weekly frequencies.
Both sides also agreed on all-cargo service for the route Clark/Subic-Finland (vice versa) with a weekly capacity of 700 tons for each side.
The Philippines has ASA with Macau, Canada, Korea.
The liberalization of the Philippines’ air policy is part of the policy framework to promote tourism under the Medium Term Development Plan for 2004 to 2010.
The air talks panel is composed of officials from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), Departments of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Industry, Tourism and representatives from airline companies.
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This is good. Turkey has been supportive of our country especially involving the Organization of Islamic Conference. Having improved flight connections through them will definitely help us.