The Philippine air service negotiating panel is hard pressed to win more flight entitlements for Philippine carriers when it goes to Macau on May 1.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Cebu Pacific Air are both seeking additional flights to Macau as they expand their presence in the booming China market.

"We will launch five flights [per week] to Macau starting May 1 but these are all under TOP, or temporary operating permits," PAL spokesperson Rolando Estabillo said in a telephone interview. "At the very least we would like a more permanent arrangement and if we can get more flights then that would be good."

PAL recently ramped up its expansion into the China market, introducing twice-weekly services to Chongqing on March 14 and to Chengdu on March 18. With five new flights a week to Macau, plus flights to Shanghai, Xiamen, Hong Kong and Beijing, PAL will have a total of 56 flights a week to China by May.

That will makes China the largest destination of PAL, surpassing the carrier's traditional "bread-and-butter routes": the United States, where it flies 33 times a week to five points, and Japan, where it flies 28 times a week to four points.

The budget carrier Cebu Pacific currently flies to Macau, Shanghai, Xiamen and Guangzhou. It is seeking four times a week flights between Macau and Clark Freeport, north of Manila. Macau is one of five destinations it needs to service from the Luzon gateway to put up a hub in Clark.

Cebu Pacific plans to increase Manila-Macau flights from four a week to five starting June 30. It also flies to Macau from Cebu City twice weekly.

However, its requests for the additional flights have been rejected by Macau several times, saying that the current entitlements were full.