Kuwait Airways (KAC) and Philippine Airlines (PAL) are entering into a co-operation agreement under which PAL passengers will be carried on the Kuwaiti carrier¹s flights between Bangkok and Manila - flights operated only because of the need for a technical stop. A PAL source says from Manila that the agreement is due to be announced tomorrow (15 November) - the day it takes effect.
KAC currently operates flights between Kuwait and Manila, via Bangkok. It has no beyond, or fifth freedom, rights out of Bangkok to carry originating passengers onward to Manila, however, and its stops in Bangkok are only technical ones.
Approval
The source says that approval has been won for the Kuwaiti carrier¹s Bangkok-Manila flights to be operated effectively as charters for PAL, allowing the Manila-based airline to sell seats for the leg where space is available.
"They have no fifth freedom rights so for all intents and purposes they will be PAL flights," the source says. "It is quite a novel deal."
PAL radically cut international services of its own after being put into receivership in mid-1998 under a debt of more than $2 billion.
It has recently been trying to expand its network through route-specific passenger code-share or joint service agreements, and now has such arrangements with EgyptAir, Emirates and Malaysia Airlines.
Source: Flight Daily News
