No quick solution to lack of Middle East flights for OFWs

Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay earlier said PAL’s air rights have been underutilized because of the “code sharing" scheme

Members of the House of Representatives are threatening to take away the franchise of Philippine Airlines for snubbing a probe on lack of airline seats for overseas Filipino workers bound for the Middle East.

The chairman of the Committee on Overseas Worker Affairs (COWA) Rep. Manuel “Way Kurat” Zamora (Compostela) said they twice invited executives of PAL to explain their side, but they failed to attend the hearings.

Rollie Estabillo, PAL’s vice president for corporate affairs, said they have not been invited to the hearings.

“If we were invited, we would go. That would give us a chance to air our side,” he said in a telephone interview.

HR 535

House Resolution 535, filed by Rep. Zamora, seeks to investigate the lack of flights and shortage of airline seats for departing OFWs.

He said this is a common complaint of many recruiters because “the lack of outbound flights is derailing the departure of approximately 1,000 workers everyday or approximately 30,000 workers per month."

Eduardo Mahiya, President of the Federated Associations of Manpower Exporters (FAME), earlier said it currently takes one to two months before agencies can book an OFW on connecting flights headed for the Middle East.

FAME Vice President Jackson Gan said OFWs depend on connecting flights since there are very few direct flights to the Middle East.

Federation of Migrant Workers President Francisco Aguilar said this is unfortunate because most OFWs being deployed are bound for Middle Eastern countries.

CAB answers

Carmeo Arcilla, executive director of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), said in a letter to Zamora that “the CAB is, and has been responsive to the support needed by our OFWs with regard to the provision for flights to the Middle East.”

In line with this, the CAB even approved in 2006 the entry of a new Philippine air carrier, Tair Airways. In 2004, Cebu Pacific applied for rights to fly to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

“Tair Airways intends to operate wide body aircraft between Manila and Saudi Arabia with several weekly flights specifically to cater to OFW traffic,” Arcilla said.

However, Arcilla said this has not started.

Tair Airlines was supposed to begin its Clark-Riyadh-Jeddah service by mid-January of 2008, a development that was expected to ease travel of some 1.4 million Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia whose families live in provinces north of Manila.

Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) President Jose Victor Luciano said Tuesday that the Philippines and Saudi governments have issued the necessary permits and other requirements for Tair Airlines to serve the route.

"The new flights of Tair will, although belatedly, afford them the chance to go home. In the next Christmas season, these flights will ease up shortages," Luciano earlier said.

Tair is supposed to fly four times a week to Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark, Pampanga.

Figures presented by the CAB show that in 2007, 860,721 seats were offered by various airlines servicing the Middle East.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said that deployment of OFWs from January 1 to December 9, 2007 already reached 1,012,954. Of these, 730,600 OFWs were bound for Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the UAE, and Yemen.

The seat allocation also includes seats for returning residents of that country, returning OFWs, businessmen and tourists. Thus, OFWs have to scramble for seats given the lack of flights to the Middle East.

Arcilla said that there are no talks for new air rights for flights to and from the Middle East.

Code sharing

Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay earlier said PAL’s air rights have been underutilized because of the “code sharing" scheme.

She said that CAB should implement a policy of “if you don’t fly, you lose your rights."

"If PAL can't serve these routes, the government should allow other airlines to do so," she said.

Estabillo said PAL once serviced the Middle East, but they gave this up in 1998 when the flag carrier could no longer afford to service the Manila-Riyadh and Manila-Jeddah routes.

PAL stopped this route in 1998 after a pilots' strike crippled its operations. Due to the need to cut costs, PAL sacrificed its flights to Saudi Arabia.

Still not enough

Six Middle Eastern airlines now serve the Manila to Middle East route, but these flights are still not enough. These airlines cannot accommodate all workers coming back to the Philippines

The six Middle East carriers—Gulf Air, Saudia, Etihad, Qatar Air, Kuwait Air, Emirates—are asking the CAB to allow them to increase their flights from the current 50 a week.

Zamora said “ongoing construction projects in the Middle East make this a peak season for deployment of highly-skilled workers” but the lack of flights is an obstacle to deployment.

There are around 2 million OFWs in Saudi Arabia alone, and at least a million more in other nearby countries.

Zamora is asking the government, the private sector and all industry players to join hands in ensuring that OFWs are assured of airline seats.

He said “the decrease of deployment of OFWs due to lack or shortage of airline seats means less remittances to keep our economy afloat.” By JULIE JAVELLANA-SANTOS abs-cbnNEWS.com