Emirates has announced plans to launch a new service to Clark International Airport in Greater Manila Area of the Philippines on October 1 this year.
Operated by a two-class Boeing 777-300ER, the daily non-stop flight, EK338, will depart Dubai at 0400 and arrive at Clark at 1640. The return flight, EK339, will depart at 1835 for a 2305 arrival. Clark, once home to an American air force base and now a freeport zone, is the airline's second destination in the archipelago.
Emirates has been operating flights to the Philippine capital of Manila since 1990, and the current flight frequency on this non-stop route is triple daily.
Clark airport has mostly been known as a hub for low-cost carriers and Emirates is set to be among the first major airlines to serve the facility. Clark’s role in the bigger picture is as catalyst in the master plan of the government’s Clark Special Economic Zone (CSEZ) to establish “Aerotropolis”, a competitive service and logistics centre by 2015. The airport also wants to develop itself into the Gatwick or Haneda of Metro Manila, although infrastructure remains an issue to be resolved. For more on the airport, click here.
Clark is located in the province of Pampanga in Central Luzon, 80 kilometres to the north of Manila. It has a catchment area of 17 million people.
With the new route, Emirates SkyCargo will also be able to provide some 160 tonnes of additional cargo hold capacity each way per week to support the Philippines' exports of perishables such as dairy products, fruit and vegetables, meat, seafood and electrical and electronic equipment, and its imports of textiles, apparel, plants, flowers and chemical products. There are 680,000 Filipinos living in the UAE and the new flight provides them with another option when travelling back home.
For more on Clark and other emerging cities in the Asean region, click here.
Reggie Ho
