PAL to seek Duterte help in settling row with Kuwait

FLAG carrier Philippine Airlines will seek the assistance of the incoming Duterte administration to help settle an air row with Kuwait.

PAL president Jaime Bautista said the issue had to do with fifth freedom rights PAL had sought to use between Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait City.

This move was blocked by the Kuwait government despite the fact that it was granted under the Philippine-Kuwait Bilateral Air Services Agreement of 1977, as amended in April 1995 and February 2009.

We are asking them and hopefully the new government will attend to it,” Bautista told reporters last week.

Fifth freedom rights are coveted by carriers since it improves the business viability of a certain route. In this case, it allows Philippine Airlines to fly from Manila to Dubai, then pick up passengers and cargo in that location, and ferry them onward to Kuwait.

Because of this, the Philippines, citing the “principle of equal opportunity,” on last March 27 suspended Kuwait Airways’ Bangkok-Manila fifth freedom privileges that it has been operating over the last two decades.

“The Kuwaitis have enjoyed that benefit for the last 20 years. Now that we want to take advantage of that right, we were not granted this,” Bautista said.

Bautista said he personally wrote Foreign Affairs Secretary Jose Rene Almendras to intervene in the issue.

He said this would be revived under the Duterte administration after the government completes its transition. Incumbent President Aquino is stepping down from office at the end of June 2016.

PAL said it wanted to serve Filipinos in Kuwait. On Jan. 17, it launched a four times weekly service between Manila and Kuwait (via Dubai).

The current agreement between the Philippines and Kuwait allows for eight flights per week for each country. PAL and Cebu Pacific have four flights each.

Civil Aeronautics Board executive director Carmelo Arcilla said they allowed Kuwait Airlines to increase its weekly flights from six to eight despite opposition from local carriers since this was a “separate issue.”