Talks on to revive Davao City-Manado direct air flights

By ROGER M. BALANZA

Davao City tourism players are discussing with their counterparts from Indonesia plans to revive direct air flights between Davao City and Manado, the provincial capital of North Sulawesi in Indonesia is a welcome development.

Angel Puentespina, president of the Davao Association of Travel Agencies, said the first of a series of round table discussions this week between DATA and tourism players from Indonesia brought in by the Indonesian Consulate in Davao City. Puentespina said Indonesia tourists would perk up local tourism that depends mostly on domestic tourists.

The Davao-Manado air route was previously serviced by Indonesian airline Merpati ten years ago. But the weekly flights—seen as a big boost to efforts to increase trade and tourism traffic between members of the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines/East Asean Growth Area (BIMP/EAGA)–was stopped shortly after a few flights for lack of passengers.

Puentespina said the passenger load of airlines in the city also increased by 15 percent for the first quarter of 2008 compared to the passenger load of airlines for the same period in 200, crediting it to more air flights from Manila and Cebu. He said the Davao-Manado direct flights could further boost glowing figures on the growth of local tourism.