PH wants to test Indian market; chartered flights eyed by 2024

department of tourism

MANILA – Talks are ongoing for flights between the Philippines and India, with initial chartered flights testing the Indian market expected to be out by the end of the year, the Department of Tourism (DOT) said Tuesday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 2024 post-State of the Nation Address (SONA) discussions in Pasay City, Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco said talks between the two countries are progressing well.

“There have already been successful talks in terms of air talks together with the CAAP (Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines), of which the DOT is a member, in trying to entice our local carriers plus carriers from India to mount flights to the Philippines,” she told reporters.

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She said the DOT has proposed to “test the market through charter flights,” as well as through coordination with local tour operators and travel agencies to mount group travel from India to prove there is a growing demand for them to come to the Philippines.

“Hopefully, with these negotiations and collaborations that we made in cooperation with the Department of Transportation, we will be seeing good news in terms of mounted flights before the end of the year,” she said.

The government is preparing the country’s tourism landscape to fully capture the market and has been pushing to streamline the e-Visa system for Indian tourists, one of the biggest outbound travel markets in the world.

Last year, Indian nationals ranked 13th in terms of arrival at 70,286.