KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is increasing by 10 percent the capacity of its Amsterdam-Manila-Amsterdam route after President Aquino signed a law removing a tax that discriminates foreign airlines from local airlines. In a statement, KLM Royal Dutch said daily flights would continue to operate via Taipei using an aircraft combination of Boeing 777-300s and Boeing 777-200s. “With aforementioned capacity increase, KLM aspires to take a first step towards the joint goal with the Department of Tourism of bringing more tourists to the Philippines,” the airline said. The Aquino administration is looking at 10 million tourists visiting the Philippines by 2016 from last year’s level of about 4.3 million. The airline cited Republic Act 10374 otherwise known as the Common Carriers Tax Act that rationalized the taxes paid by international carriers. The law signed last month by President Aquino removed the three percent common carriers imposed on passenger traffic of foreign airlines. John Paul Cabalza, president of Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA), earlier said leading international carriers including Cathay Pacific, Delta Airlines, Etihad, KLM, Kuwait Airlines, Lufthansa/Swiss Airlines, Qatar Airlines, and Singapore Airlines are expected to add more flights into the country by middle of this year The law also exempted international air and shipping carriers from paying Gross Philippine Billings provided that the carrier’s home country “grants income tax exemption to Philippine carriers” on the basis of reciprocity or an applicable tax treaty or international agreement. The law also exempted international carriers from paying the 12-percent value added tax (VAT) for the transport of passengers. Both CCT and GPBT carries a 5.50-percent tax on airlines that translates to P2.50 billion in revenues for the government. Source:- http://goodnewspilipinas.com/2013/04/03/klm-royal-dutch-airlines-hikes-capacity-to-the-philippines/
I thought KLM were retiring the -200's? Now they've done away with the tax, hopefully KLM may consider resuming direct flights to Manila again in the future.
The -200s are still flying the route most days of the week and I believe a -300 is used once a week. As for restarting its non-stop service between Manila and Amsterdam, I don't think that will ever happen. KLM issued plenty of warnings before it closed its station here and made a load of people redundant - including aircrew. But those warnings fell on deaf ears - or maybe the government called their bluff.
The Philippine Government has an unenviable record of getting it wrong on such occasions; the failure to renew the Bases Agreement with the USA was the worst example - the Philippines asked for too much money, thinking that the USA would pay any price and not understanding that the real use of Subic and Clark was for cheap repairs - the US DoD was under intense pressure from domestic unions to repatriate this work and when the Philippines asked for more money in bases rental than the US DoD could expect to pay the Unions at home, the decision "took itself" - the Filipinos were flabbergasted when the Americans closed their attache cases and left. Then Pinatubo blew off and destroyed much of the infrastructure anyway.
More frequent use of the 777-300. edit: Actually their seat pitch is not bad even for a big guy like me I can't really complain, but I do prefer the extra legroom seats, however I no longer get those for free.
And in the future? "A plane powered only by the Sun has set off from San Francisco on the first leg of a bid to cross the US with no fuel. The Solar Impulse craft will stop in Phoenix, Dallas, St Louis, Washington DC and New York in the coming weeks. The team's plane has the same wingspan as an Airbus A340 but weighs only as much as an average car. It has already made a day-and-night flight lasting more than 26 hours, and the team aims to eventually circumnavigate the globe in 2015." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22369680
