The Philippines and Papua New Guinea expanded their air services agreement to support the growing tourism and trade between the two countries.
Civil Aeronautics Board executive director Carmelo Arcilla said the Philippine air panel and its counterpart in PNG signed on June 28 an amended ASA, expanding the air traffic entitlements between the two countries from 760 seats a week to 1,500 seats in Manila.
The two countries also expanded traffic rights from 1,500 seats to 3,000 seats outside Manila.
The Philippine negotiating panel is composed of officials from the CAB, Departments of Transportation, Tourism and Foreign Affairs, Clark International Airport Corp. and local airline companies.
“The expanded capacity will provide the necessary air traffic right support for the growing engagements between the two countries in the field of agriculture, tourism, investments, people to people exchange and overall trade,” Arcilla said.
Air Niuguni and PAL currently operate 5 times weekly and 4 times weekly flights, respectively between Manila and Port Moresby.
Meanwhile, Arcilla said the Philippine air panel would hold separate air talks with India and Switzerland in the coming months.
Data from the Department of Tourism showed that the number of tourists from India rose 18.3 percent to 107,278 visitors in 2017 from 90,816 visitors in 2016.
The number of visitors from Switzerland to the Philippines reached 29,837 in 2017, slightly up from 29,420 visitors in 2016. Papua New Guinea visitors rose 4.8 percent to 8,110 last year from 7,738 in 2016.
The top markets for the Philippines are South Korea with 1.6 million, followed by China, 968,447; the United States, 957,813; Japan, 584,180; Australia, 259,433; Canada, 200,640; the United Kingdom,182,708; Singapore, 168,637 and Malaysia, 143,566.
Other high-growth markets are Hong Kong, 111,135; New Zealand, 28,983; Germany, 85,431; France, 64, 777; Saudi Arabia, 54,716 and the Netherlands, 33,821.