Emirates Adds Clark as Second Destination in the Philippines

United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier, Emirates Airline is to introduce a second destination in the Philippines as it seeks to keep track with growing air service demand to and from the Asian country. The fast-expanding Gulf carrier has been operating flights to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, since 1990 and, due to the demand, has continued to increase its flight frequency on the route to its current triple daily, non-stop service.

From October 1, 2013 it will introduce a new daily, non-stop link between Dubai International Airport and Clark International Airport, located in the province of Pampanga in Central Luzon, which is 80 kilometres to the north of Manila. The modern facility serves the general vicinity of Greater Manila Area, along with the northern regions of Luzon and has a catchment of around 17 million people.

Clark, formerly known as Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, is currently mainly used by low-cost carriers like AirAsia Philippines, AirPhil Express, Cebu Pacific, South East Asian Airlines and Zest Airways, although Asiana Airlines does offer full-service flights to Busan and Seoul Incheon, while Dragonair has a link to Hong Kong. Emirates’ arrival at Clark represents the first scheduled air services at the facility from a major hub carrier from outside of Asia.

“There has always been a growing demand for Emirates’ services since we connected Manila with Dubai and our constantly expanding network on six continents. The launch of flights between Clark International Airport and Dubai will offer our passengers the flexibility of choosing from two destinations in the Philippines,” said Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline.

“I would like to extend Emirates’ thanks to the Government of the Philippines and the Civil Aviation and Clark Authority that have made the start of this service possible, we look forward to building on our relationship with the country and the enhancement of key tourism and trade links between the Philippines and the UAE, and beyond to our global network,” he added.

The expansion of the Emirates network follows the signing of a revised Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) between the Philippines and UAE which has permitted a doubling of flights between the two countries to 28 per week from each side. The added capacity will support the strong demand from the Filipino diaspora of around ten million globally - about ten per cent of the country’s home population. The largest numbers of overseas Filipinos reside mainly in the United States, but the region with the largest temporary overseas Filipino population is the Middle East with approximately 2.9 million Filipinos, with 680,000 living in the UAE.

Alongside this demand, Emirates expects to attract a good mix of business and leisure travellers and will serve the route with a two-class Boeing 777-300ER. Central Luzon is one of the leading growth regions in the Philippines and is host to the country’s premier economic zones – the Clark Freeport Zone and the Subic Bay Freeport Zone. It is also the closest arrival point to a number of emerging attractions across a region known for its rich coast line, including the lake crater of Mount Pinatubo.

With the new daily flight to Clark International Airport, Emirates’ freight business Emirates SkyCargo will be able to provide more than 160 tonnes of additional cargo hold capacity each way per week, further supporting Philippines exports of perishables, such as dairy products, fruit and vegetables, meat, seafood and electrical and electronic equipment, and its imports of textiles, apparel, plants, flowers and chemical products.

In the table below we highlight the top ten O&D network points for passengers connecting on Emirates’ existing flights in and out of the Philippines at its Dubai International Airport hub. Around two in three passengers on the carrier’s flights to and from Manila currently begin or end their journeys at a point other than the UAE, with the strongest traffic flows to Kuwait, Doha, Riyadh, Madrid and London.