Two Filipino airlines cleared for Middle East service

The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) of the Philippines on Wednesday approved the application of two Filipino-owned air carriers to start offering commercial flights to the Middle East.

An ABS-CBN News report which was beamed to Dubai by The Filipino Channel reported that the announcement was made by Carmelo Arcilla, Deputy Executive Director of the CAB during yesterday's congressional hearing by the Committee on Overseas Workers' Affairs.

Arcilla identified the carriers as Spirit of Manila and Transglobal Airways.

Earlier, Victor Jose Luciano, President and CEO of Clark International Airport Corp, which runs the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in Central Luzon in the Philippines, said Transglobal Airways will use their facilities for the flight to Fujairah.

The Transglobal twice-weekly flight, which uses a 160-seater MD-83 aircraft, will make stopovers in Dhaka, Bangladesh before proceeding to Fujairah.

The Transglobal flights are chartered by Kang Pacific Airways.

"This flight would be very accessible to our OFWs working in the Middle East and the flight of Transglobal will make a difference for our countrymen abroad," Luciano said.

"This is a start of our connection to the Middle East because there are so many of our countrymen clamouring for more airlines to fly from the Middle East to the Philippines."