Emirates adds four more flights to the Philippines

Above, the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros of the Philippines' capital. Noel Celis / AFP

Emirates airline said it would launch an additional four flights per week to Manila in March, after the Philippines’ regulator granted more capacity to the UAE in August.

"Starting March 29, Emirates will fly a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft four times per week to Manila," a spokesperson said.

“This is in addition to the current two daily flights from Dubai to Manila.”

Due to the demand from Dubai’s vast Filipino expatriate population, Emirates operated three flights a day between Dubai and Manila for a period of about two years.

The third daily flight was through a codeshare agreement with Philippines Airlines (PAL), but it stopped after the agreement with PAL expired in 2014. Emirates has wanted to increase its flights to Manila since then, but it was not until last August that the Philippines allowed it to put on an additional four flights.

That resulted in the UAE being allowed to increase its weekly flights to Manila to 35 from 28.

"During the air talks, the UAE was given seven additional flights to Manila. Three of those went to Etihad Airways and the other four were given to Emirates," said Carmelo Arcilla, the executive director of Philippines Civil Aeronautics Board.

Emirates launched flights to Manila in 1990 to serve more than 900,000 Filipinos living in the UAE, more than half of whom live in Dubai.

On Monday, Emirates said that it would start daily flights to Cebu and Clark in the islands nation from March 30.

Mr Arcilla said that Cebu and Clark are considered secondary gateways for the country and therefore enjoy more “liberal traffic rights” as opposed to Manila.

The Philippines is keen to bring foreign airlines to those destinations in an effort to boost tourism.

Separately, Emirates highlighted its economic benefits to Los Angeles as it announced its second daily flight to the home of Hollywood. The Dubai carrier's additional flight, a three-class Airbus A380-800ULR, will be used for the route from July 1.

The increase in capacity by Emirates comes amid US airlines axing routes into Dubai, with Arabian Gulf carriers accused of dumping capacity in the United States.

Last month, United Airlines said that it would end its Washington-Dubai service, following on from Delta saying in October that it would end flights from Atlanta to Dubai.

However, Emirates said yesterday that it would bring added tourism revenue to LA, and help to support jobs with the new service.

“Our existing service provides US$677 million in annual economic benefit to LA and the surrounding area, contributes over $270m in annual spending by visitors, and helps to support nearly 6,000 US jobs,” said Hubert Frach, Emirates divisional senior vice president, commercial operations, West.

“So our additional service to LAX not only doubles our capacity to meet demand for our award-winning service, but also increases our positive economic impact to the Los Angeles area.”

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