Emirates airline touches down at Clark

Clark: Emirates airline on Tuesday touched down at Clark International Airport, marking the start of its daily non-stop flights between Dubai and Clark, Pampanga.

Clark, a city 80 kilometres north of Metro Manila, is Emirates’ 135th destination around the world and its second gateway to the Philippines.

Emirates has been serving the Philippines in Manila since 1990 and has since increased its flight frequency to three times a day, non-stop. The opening of a new flight route in Clark will provide more flight options and convenience to people living in the northern part of the country, Luzon.

“A big number of people are living in this area. It is difficult for them and takes them hours, for some maybe more than two hours, to reach Manila. With Emirates here, they can choose this airport and fly with us to Dubai and beyond Dubai,” Mohammad Mattar, Emirates’ Divisional Senior Vice-President Airport Services, told Gulf News.

An estimated two million Filipino expatriates around the world come from Clark. The airport’s strategic location also offers a catchment population of 17 million passengers in the area.

“Both countries, both people—be it in leisure, business, tourism, they will benefit because they have more choices now,” Mattar added.

The opening of the new flights to local and foreign carriers is also part of the open skies policy of Philippine government. Clark International Airport is poised to complete its expansion project of the current terminal by December this year, to increase capacity to up to five million passengers.

“The presence of Emirates here [signals] to us that you have seen our sincerity and our promise as a nation and it signals to the world that without doubt, the Philippines has begun to take flight as a nation determined to make permanent positive transformation it enjoys today,” President Benigno Aquino III said in a speech read by Joseph Abaya, Secretary of Department of Transportation and Communication.

Emirates’ non-stop service is not only expected to bolster passenger traffic between two destinations. It is also projected to boost cargo transfers in the region..

“Traditionally, cargo from the north goes all the way to Manila. So we want to provide an alternative gateway. They could straightaway bring it here and reduce the total transportation time for cargo from four days to three days,” Ravishankar Mirle, Vice-President of Emirates’ Cargo Commercial Operations-Asia and Australasia, told Gulf News.

With the new daily flights, Emirates SkyCargo will be able to provide 160 tons of additional cargo capacity per week to further support Philippine exports of perishable goods.

Currently, Emirates uses a Boeing 777 with passenger capacity of more than 200 people. Emirates flight EK338 departs Dubai International Airport at 4am while the return flight EK339 leaves Clark at 6.35pm. The trip takes roughly eight hours, 40 minutes.