Asian Spirit flies into DMIA five times a week
March 13, 2008

Officials of the Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC) announced the inaugural flight of Asian Spirit Airline on March 31 at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA).
Asian Spirit will fly the Incheon-Clark-Incheon flights route five times a week at DMIA.
Asian Spirit is the first local carrier to operate international flights at DMIA which is being geared as the premier international gateway and logistics hub and services in the country.
Asian Spirit will fly into DMIA every Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. During Fridays, Asian Spirit will go directly to Kalibo, Aklan and will proceed to the DMIA to take passengers to Incheon in South Korea.
CIAC President and CEO Victor Jose I. Luciano said “the flights of Asian Spirit at DMIA will reinforce further the growth of Korean tourists to visit Clark and the rest of the region,” he added.
Luciano also said the increase of flights to Korea will further boost trade relations between the Philippines and South Korea by generating more businesses and livelihood in Central Luzon.
“This will spur economic activities in the whole Central Luzon which would perk up businesses that will benefit the people,” Luciano said.
He said that CIAC will give its full support to the endeavors of Asian Spirit to its operations at the airport which decided to conduct international flights since DMIA is the premier international airport in the country.
Luciano said that more air carriers are expected to operate at Clark because of an executive order that is expected to be signed by the President, adding that once the EO is signed it will allow other foreign air carriers including those local airliners unlimited access to fly to Clark.
Bienvenido Manga, Vice-President for Operations and DMIA general manager, also said that the increase of flights by Asian Spirit is due to the growing numbers Korean passengers visiting the country. Koreans top the most numbers of tourists visiting the Philippines.
He expressed confidence that Asian Spirit operations at DMIA will attract more investments for Clark that will generate jobs and livelihood opportunities.
Manga added that once President Arroyo signs an executive order it will attract more air carriers to operate at DMIA thus increasing the flights to various destinations in the country and the rest of the world.
DMIA averages at least 54 flights per week and is expected to further increase due to the entry of Asian Spirit and Hong Kong Express. Other airlines operating at DMIA are Asiana Airlines, Tiger Airways, Air Asia, China Southern Airline, South East Asian Airline (Seair) and Cebu Pacific.
Last March 5, Hong Kong Express restored its open-chartered flights via Clark-Hong Kong at the airport using Boeing 737-800 aircraft with a capacity of 164 seats.
President Arroyo had declared DMIA as the premier international gateway of the country. The airport’s Passenger Terminal is being expanded to accommodate at least 1 to 2 million passengers annually and the Terminal 2 project is expected to start in the middle of this year to further increase passenger capacity of 7 to 8 million annually.
An In-flight catering services facility is being constructed at DMIA to cater the needs of the airliners operating in the area. The facility would be managed by Gategourmet Philippines in a joint venture project of Miascor. Macroasia also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with CIAC to establish a $50 million facility for airport related services at DMIA.