THREE travel companies have formed a new consortium, Outings, to offer gay-friendly tours to and from the Philippines that are free of discrimination.

The consortium, conceptualised in 2H2013 and consisting of Rajah Travel Corp, Afro Asian Travel and Tours, and Travel Warehouse, began marketing and sales at two B2C events in early July with gay pride tours for Amsterdam and Las Vegas.

“The LGBT market is an untapped market for the Philippines, which itself is a young market,” said Alberto Santos, overall in charge for products and marketing, Rajah Travel Corp. “When we teamed up with Afro Asian and Travel Warehouse, we wanted to offer products where the market will feel safe and welcome, and not discriminated against.”

Travel Warehouse’s general manager, Jaison Yang, explained: “Ours are not tours with an LGBT element, they’re gay-friendly tours designed specifically for the market.”

Yang said his Bali ‘Sparty’ tours will take travellers to LGBT-friendly spas and ‘pink’ beaches. Another possibility is cruise-based tours to Komodo where travel groups can charter an entire boat and chef for themselves. He intends to also cover destinations like Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Singapore.

Meanwhile Afro Asian Travel and Tours is planning programmes for Manila, Cebu, Boracay, and Palawan, which may include a “rainbow run” or expo. These itineraries, readily found in Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, will be FIT and couple-oriented.

Angel Bognot, president of Afro Asian, has begun promoting Outings products to buyers in Europe and North America.

Rajah is exploring selling cruise dates with Atlantis Events, which does LGBT cruises in Europe and the US. Said Santos: “We’re testing the market…We want to see if the products will be accepted, and if this will really grow into a market of its own.”

VIETNAM-based LCC Jetstar Pacific will launch its first Ho Chi Minh City-Singapore flight on October 27.

Sister airline Jetstar Asia currently operates three daily flights between Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City, with Jetstar Pacific’s new service becoming the fourth daily connection.

Jetstar Pacific’s flights depart Ho Chi Minh City at 07.05 to land in Singapore at 08.15, and return flights leave Singapore at 11.15 and arrive in Ho Chi Minh City at 12.15.

Separately, the LCC is also introducing a new domestic route from Ho Chi Minh City to Thanh Hoa in the north.

Jetstar Group’s executive manager of planning and airline partnerships, Alistair Hartley, said Vietnam is one of the fastest growing domestic aviation markets in the world with 19 per cent domestic traffic growth in 2013, according to the Vietnamese Civil Aviation Authority.

“Jetstar Pacific’s new services will allow it to capitalise on the evolving opportunities in the Vietnamese markets,” Hartley said. “With Vietnam’s double-digit domestic travel growth and very low levels of LCCs operating on international routes to and from Vietnam, growth of the Jetstar Pacific fleet and network will help unlock the full potential of this market.”

MANILA’S Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 will be “fully operational” by July 31, with five international carriers transferring operations to the new facility, said the Philippines Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

Shifting from the over-congested Terminal 1 are Delta Air Lines on August 1, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines on August 4 and Emirates on August 15. Cathay Pacific Airways and Singapore Airlines are also expected to do so before September.

The move lowers Terminal 1’s current passenger traffic from eight million to its design capacity of 4.5 million.

In a statement released today, DOTC secretary, Joseph Emilio Abaya, said: “We are extremely pleased to confirm that full airline operations will begin at NAIA Terminal 3 next week. Our gateway airport will now be able to welcome 3.5 million more passengers with modern facilities every year, and Terminal 1 will now be considerably decongested to improve passenger convenience.”

Until now Terminal 3 has been operating at half capacity due to improperly maintained facilities. It was used only by Cebu Pacific Air, All Nippon Airways, Philippine Airlines (PAL) and PAL Express.

Meanwhile Terminal 1’s refurbishment will be completed by 1Q2015, and plans for a fifth terminal catering exclusively to international flights are underway.

However, some lamented that NAIA has other issues it needs to solve.

“Whatever we do with the transfer of these airlines, the airport is not really working in terms of flights arriving on time,” said Dolly Santos, president, Golden Sky Travel & Tours, who cited problems such as the lack of additional runways, inadequate restroom facilities and luggage provisions.

“If we concentrated on one terminal for international, like Clark or Sangley, and one terminal for domestic, it would be much better.”

EGYPTAIR will commence thrice-weekly flights between New Delhi and Cairo in October despite weakened visitorship from India.

This comes on top of an existing four-times-weekly service to Mumbai.

Egypt’s tourism minister Hisham Za’zou commented: “Cultural tourism decreased during the last three years, especially in Luxor and Aswan. The ministry is now seeking to open new tourism markets like India to boost cultural tourism.”

Adel El Masry, director, Egyptian Tourism Office in India, said: “In 2010, about 170,000 Indian tourists visited Egypt while the 2013 count was 90,000. In 2014, Egypt expects about 100,000 Indian visitors.”

Tasneem Sharafally, director, Mumbai-based Global Destinations, said Indian traffic will return to Egypt as long as it is safe, because of “enduring” interest. “I expect about 25 per cent growth in 2015 with the help of these additional flights, if the destination is politically stable.”

JET Airways has announced a three-year turnaround plan to return to profitability through fleet consolidation by selling or leasing surplus aircraft, debt restructuring and expansion of profitable international operations.

Speaking at a news conference yesterday, Naresh Goyal, founder of the airline, said: “Jet Airways’ international operations are already profitable and contribute 45 per cent to total revenue. As part of our three-year turnaround plan we plan to increase this contribution to 63 per cent by 2015.”

Also present was James Hogan, CEO of Etihad Airways, which holds a 24 per cent stake in Jet Airways. “This is not an overnight turnaround plan but a structured rebuilding process. We are committed to return the airline back to profitability,” said Hogan, amid rising speculations that Etihad could raise its stake in the Indian carrier.

Focus areas for international operations will include network development to markets such as Europe, China, Australia and South-east Asia.

Domestically, Jet Airways will also reconfigure its fleet and boost connections to India’s smaller cities.

The two airlines today launched a new marketing campaign, Flying India Forward, across all media platforms, and have appointed Cramer Ball as Jet Airways’ new CEO and Subodh Karnik as COO.

Jet Airways has not been solvent since 2007, and reported a loss of US$689 million for the financial year ending March 2014.

RESPONDING to a ban on commercial airline operations at Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International Airport issued earlier this week by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Israel has opened Ovda Airport to international commercial flights instead.

Transportation minister Yisrael Katz said on Wednesday that foreign airlines have a choice of landing at Ovda, a military airfield that currently also serves civilian flights to popular resort destination Eilat.

Haaretz.com, the online edition of Israel’s Haaretz Newspaper, reported as of late last night that none of the airlines operating at Ben Gurion has decided to take up the offer.

However, the news site noted that Ovda has limited ability for civilian flights and is “usually not prepared” for wide-body aircraft landings. Additional manpower such as flight controllers, emergency firefighting and rescue crews is also required.

In the meantime, the FAA lifted its ban on flights to Israel late on Wednesday night after first extending the ban from originally 24 hours to 48. The US aviation agency issued the order after a rocket landed within a mile of Ben Gurion on Tuesday.

ABC News stated earlier that dozens of flights and hundreds of passengers were affected as international airlines including Air Canada, Lufthansa and Air France chose to follow the FAA’s guidelines. US-based carriers like US Airways, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines had already cancelled flights.

Said FAA in its latest statement: “Before making this decision, the FAA worked with its US government counterparts to assess the security situation in Israel and carefully reviewed both significant new information and measures the government of Israel is taking to mitigate potential risks to civil aviation.

“The FAA’s primary mission and interest are the protection of people traveling on US airlines. The agency will continue to closely monitor the very fluid situation around Ben Gurion airport and will take additional actions, as necessary.”

Separately, the European Aviation Safety Agency on Tuesday also “strongly” recommended that airlines refrain from flying to Ben Gurion airport. Air France has suspended flights “until further notice” and Lufthansa has cancelled Thursday flights.

*This article has been updated as the FAA lifted the ban on flights to Israel on Thursday afternoon, Singapore time.

TRANSASIA Airways flight GE222 crash landed in a residential area near Magong airport on the Penghu island chain in Taiwan yesterday, claiming the lives of at least 40 travellers.

According to news agency AFP, the ATR 72-500 was carrying 58 people including four crew members and four children from Kaohsiung to the islands on Taiwan’s west coast.

Bad weather as Typhoon Matmo streaked through Taiwan prompted a delayed landing by the aircraft, and it was on the second attempt to land at Matmo airport that it crashed into houses in the village of Sisi.

AFP quoted Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration director general, Shen Chi, as saying 51 people were thought to have perished in the accident, but later revised the figure to 47.

Lee Yi-liang and co-pilot Chiang Kuan-hsin, who between them had chalked up over 20,000 flight hours, piloted the flight, said the AFP report.

Aircraft manufacturer ATR said in a statement that the circumstances of the accident are still under investigation, and that the Aviation Safety Council of Taiwan is taking the lead in this case.

TransAsia Airways also flies to Thailand, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan, Macau and Palau, and will launch Taiwan’s first LCC later this year.