Emirates Air has petitioned the Philippines Office of the President to intervene and mediate a dispute between the airline and the Philippines’ Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) after the board terminated a daily flight from Manila to Dubai. The route expired on January 26, 2015, and despite an application for an extension, the CAB allowed the expiration to stand.

The CAB also fined Emirates last year for selling tickets to the Manila to Dubai route (the third daily flight along that route Emirates was operating) through October, long after its expiration. The third daily flight to Dubai was opposed by local airlines Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Cebu Pacific.

Emirates have continued to operate three daily flights to Dubai under the legal cover of extensions granted by the CAB while its petition to have the route officially granted was being considered. Emirates requested a third extension, but the CAB rejected it.  Emirates has operated the route since 1990, and also claims the third daily flight to Dubai is generally 80% filled (the Philippines has a large number of citizens working and living in the Middle East, making the Dubai flights very popular). The local airlines argue that the foreign carrier already has too many route entitlements that should be redistributed to local carriers.

Emirates Air employs more than 4,000 Filipinos in Manila and Dubai, and warns that layoffs would be required if it lost the extra capacity of the third daily flight out of Manila.