The Philippines plans to revisit its air agreements with at least four other countries in the first half of next year.
Carmelo Arcilla, executive director of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), said the Philippine air panel will be holding discussions with its counterparts from Oman, Singapore, Taiwan and Australia within the first six months of 2015.
The Philippine Air Services Negotiating Panel is composed of officials from the CAB, Departments of Transportation and Communications, of Foreign Affairs, and of Tourism (DOT), as well as from the Clark International Airport Corp and of local airline companies.
Arcilla said the air negotiations with these countries are aligned with the priority of DOT to meet the government's tourist arrivals target.
The Aquino administration is pursuing more air talks as part of its open skies policy, which aims to double tourist arrivals to 10 million by 2016.
For 2014, the Philippines is aiming for 5.4 million international tourist arrivals.
Since the start of this year, the Philippines concluded air negotiations with Ethiopia, South Africa, Macau, Canada, Myanmar, New Zealand, Singapore and France. In 2013, the Philippine air panel concluded air negotiations with Macau, Brazil, Israel, Italy and Japan.
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