Emirates expands in the Philippines by 79%, pressuring Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific

The Philippines-UAE market could again see capacity strains in 2016 as Emirates resumes Clark and launches Cebu. Emirates is also adding four weekly flights to Manila, resulting in 79% capacity expansion for the Dubai-based carrier in the Philippine market.

Meanwhile rival Etihad is adding three times weekly Manila flights. There will be 54 weekly flights in the Philippines-UAE market from May-2016 compared to 40 currently and 28 at the end of 2013. The surge in capacity is made possible by a new air services agreement which Philippine airlines unsuccessfully tried to block, fearing it could make their UAE services unviable.

Philippine Airlines is responding to the challenging conditions in the Philippines-UAE market by adding tags to all its Abu Dhabi and Dubai services, hoping new fifth freedom sectors improve the profitability of its UAE operation. Cebu Pacific is opting against using newly awarded rights for additional flights to the UAE until market conditions improve.