Philippine carrier TransGlobal Airways, which recently launched services to the Middle East using a Boeing MD-83, plans to also put into operation a Boeing 767-200.
TransGlobal CEO, Tony Kim, says he is currently in the process of purchasing a 767-200 which will be in a two-class configuration with a total of 238 seats.
Kim declines to say who the aircraft will be purchased from and says it will have to undergo a ‘C-check’.
But the aim is to put it into scheduled operation on the Manila Clark-Dubai route before year, he says, adding that the aircraft has the range to operate non-stop to Dubai.
Philippine authorities recently granted TransGlobal traffic rights to serve the Middle East from Clark, an airport outside of Manila.
On 6 June it launched a twice-weekly charter service from Clark to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates via Dhaka in Bangladesh using a Boeing MD-83 in a single-class configuration of 162 seats. It operates this service on behalf of UAE-based carrier Kang Pacific Airlines.
Kim says the MD-83 is dry-leased from an undisclosed company in Singapore which sourced it from an Indonesian airline.
He says the plan is to use the 767-200 for services to the Middle East, because this aircraft can operate there non-stop, and assign the MD-83 to routes within Asia namely the Clark-Singapore and Clark-Bangkok routes.
Longer-term the airline hopes to launch services from Clark to Hong Kong and Macau and also have charters to South Korea, he adds.
It is possible to reconfigure the MD-83 to a two-class configuration, in keeping with the 767, but Kim says he is unlikely to do this because on Asia routes it will mostly be competing against low-cot carriers.
TransGlobal started in 2006 as a dedicated cargo carrier and also operates a Boeing 737-200 freighter, which according to Flight’s ACAS database, is owned by Aergo Capital.
Kim says the 737-200 is mostly used for cargo charters to countries such as Bangladesh, China, Singapore and Thailand.
Source: flightglobal.com's sister premium news site Air Transport Intelligence news
Source: Flight International
