CLARK FREEPORT — Impressed executives of Japan Airlines said they would propose flights between Clark International Airport and Narita Airport, which serves Tokyo, particularly to serve overseas Filipino workers.
“There is a huge demand of passengers especially of OFWs,and we will propose an initial Clark-Narita route,” Kazuhiro Ishida, Japan Airlines country manager, said following a dialogue with CIAC officials.
If the new route opens, it will be served by Jetstar Japan, a JAL subsidiary that currently operates faily flights between the Ninoy Aquino International Airpot and Narita, Osaka and Nagoya airports.
Ishida was accompanied by JAL executives Koji Yamazaki, Herr Obusan, and Erwin Dela Cruz, and Japanese embassy defense attaché Kazunobu Akutsu, who is coordinating the arrival of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit.
“We welcome JAL’s proposal as it will now be able to also lure business travelers to CRK’s connectivity to tourist destinations like Palawan, Davao and Boracay, and Clark Freeport Zone’s world-class hotels and recreation facilities,” CIAC president and CEO Alexander Cauguiran said.
Cauguiran said negotiations are also underway for direct flights from Clark to the US, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Taiwan and Thailand .
Clark currently serves a network of nine domestic and eight international destinations, and is connected to various global destinations via the networks of Emirates, Qatar, Cathay Pacific, Asiana and China Eastern.
Construction of CRK’s new terminal building, which can take in 8 million passengers annually, is scheduled to be finished by the first quarter of 2020.
