Travel

Air transport deal likely means more flights between Canada and Philippines

by Charlie Smith on June 7th, 2014 at 4:58 PM
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      Transport Minister Lisa Raitt has announced a new agreement that should increase air travel between Canada and the Philippines.

      There were 430,000 one-way passenger trips between the two countries last year, which is up 22.5 percent since 2008.

      According to a federal government announcement, the expanded Canada-Philippines Air Transport Agreement offers airlines "greater flexibility" to use flights of other countries' airlines through code-sharing and for airlines to alter prices in response to consumer demand.

      Raitt made the announcement in Mississauga with Sen. Tobias Enverga, who's the first member of Canada's upper chamber of Philippine descent.

      There were 662,605 Canadian residents who self-identified as being of Philippine descent in the 2011 census, according to Statistics Canada.

      The Philippines was the largest source of immigrants to Canada between 2006 and 2011.

      The 152,300 arrivals from the Philippines accounted for 13.1 percent of all immigrants to Canada over that period.

      The next largest source country over that five-year period was China, where 122,100 immigrants came from, followed closely by India at 121,400.

      The United States was fourth, followed by Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Iran, South Korea, Colombia, and Mexico.

      Comments

      2 Comments

      Herbert

      Jun 7, 2014 at 6:31pm

      How did a tiny country like the Philippines become the largest source of immigrants even eclipsing the two largest countries in the world which also were number one and two in immigration until recently, and which also went through a recession? Oh wait a right wing conservative Christian gov. took over the reigns of power in 2006. Temporary Foreign worker program and a right wing Catholic Immigration minister were looking after their long term future. If the recently hot anti-abortion and the perennial anti same sex union debate in Filipino churches and media here in Canada is any indication we need to brace ourselves for another 'dictated by the church' vote bank in the coming years unlike the Filipino immigrants of yesteryears from Manila and other big cities, the new wave, due to its sheer numbers has a more provincial and conservative element that's what the conservatives want. Unlike the 'godless' Chinese and the 'false religion' hindus who habitually vote Liberal unless some media controlling Con comes along and bombards them with messages they start to believe, as happened last time.

      Emirates

      Jun 9, 2014 at 8:06am

      how about allowing Emirates airlines more flights to Canada like Vancouver to Dubai? Emirates introduced a new Seattle to Dubai flight because Canada refused more flights.