CLARK, PAMPANGA - Middle East-bound Filipino workers will still have to grapple with long wait for flights after air talks between the Philippines and Kuwait ended in another deadlock Thursday.

The two countries spent two days negotiating a bilateral air agreement, which would determine the limits on the capacity of passenger and cargo between them.

This is the first time that negotiations were deadlocked since this year's marathon of air talks started.

Currently, each country's airlines are entitled to an aggregate of six flights a week that are already fully utilized.

"We are in a difficult position now because the Kuwaiti panel is on a hardline," said Victor Jose Luciano, who sits on the Philippine panel as representative of Clark International Airport Corporation.

Kuwait is a major gateway of overseas Filipino workers bound for Middle East, the top destination among eight million Filipinos working abroad.

Kuwait insists on 15 flights to Manila

The Philippine panel had agreed to provide unlimited air traffic in flights commencing from or destined in Clark in central Luzon and other airports outside Metro Manila.

But the Kuwaiti panel insisted on an additional nine flights a week to and from Manila, bringing the total to 15.

The Philippine panel, however, was only willing to add one more, or a total of seven flights a week, for Manila-bound flights.

"We cannot give away our air rights," said Philippine panel chair Doroteo Reyes II, transportation undersecretary for aviation.

Air talks with Kuwait were triggered after executives of Kuwaiti firm, KGL Investment, asked President Gloria Arroyo, who attended the August ground breaking of the firm's $1 billion-worth investment in Clark, for additional air entitlements.

GMA's commitment

President Arroyo reportedly agreed to an unlimited air rights between the two countries, but only for flights to and from Clark.

Philippine panel members said the unlimited traffic was interpreted by the Kuwaitis to cover all gateways in the country, including Manila.

Members of the Philippine panel explained to abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak that previous air talks gave limited additional entitlements to Manila-bound flights so giving in to the Kuwaitis could send a different signal to the previous and future countries they will negotiate with.

In current air talks, additional entitlements have been focused on Clark, which is being positioned as the alternative aviation hub to the already congested Manila airport.

The Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the main gateway to Manila built in the 1940's, has limited capacity as expansion is constrained. Its two intersecting runways could not be extended to accommodate bigger aircrafts, nor another runway be added since the airport is amidst major throughways and residential villages.

Clark's edge

On the other hand, Clark airport, which sits on vast land that used to be the aviation facility of Americans when they had a base in the Philippines, has the infrastructure to accommodate more and bigger planes.

Manila-bound air passengers that fly through Clark, however, have to grapple with two or more hours land trip since a rail transport project is still in the doldrums after corruption and legal issues about its Chinese construction deal cropped up.

The rail project that will connect the 80 kilometer distance between Clark and Manila is not expected to be completed before 2010.

Marathon air talks, however, are being negotiated since aviation not only impact OFWs but also tourism and investments.

Tourism is being pushed as a potential major economic driver for the country, but air travel to the Philippines, regulated by the air talks, has been stunting the growth in tourism arrivals.

Another round of bilateral air negotiations is likely next year.