Conclusion
THE country has offered various incentives so that “new entrants,” air carriers flying into the Philippines for the first time, could land on outlying airports, “but the airline industry is market-driven and carriers fly to where the market is,” Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) Executive Director Carmelo L. Arcilla said.
“The airlines go to the airport where the market is, while the passengers go to the primary airports because there are more options there,” he said, saying that if a certain passenger goes to an airport without daily flight, the option would be to proceed to an airport with daily schedule because that is a safer bet.
On the other hand, he said air carriers would normally fly out of airports where there are many options, “where there are many operators, where there is a market, that is where they are going.”
“So it’s a challenge for the government and airports, it happens all over the world. It’s hard to entice operators to developmental gateways, that is why we do everything.”
“Kasi talaga it remains to be a market enterprise, it’s a challenging task, I hope we can do more to be able to encourage them,” Arcilla added.
He cited as a successful model the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA).
“Look what is happening to Mactan-Cebu [MCIA], they are marketing, promoting, because it is a private entity…profit-driven. Running an airport is a business, so they think out of the box, meron silang enticement program, improved technology,” Arcilla said.
He said MCIA is offering check-through baggage, and even their kiosk is state of the art.
“What we really need is to distribute connectivity, which is very vital to the economic well-being of a region.”
Arcilla said the vacant slots are in the early morning, but only China Eastern accepted this opening, flying out of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) seven times a week between Shanghai and Manila.
Arcilla added that new applicants have to course their applications for new flights to an independent body called Airport Coordination Australia (ACA), which approves or disapproves applications.
“We hired ACA, they are the one who knows the slots, but all the slots are taken,” he said.
According to the CAB headman, network airlines, such as Philippine Airlines (PAL) or Cathay Pacific, and most Middle East airlines cannot operate anytime because they service other places abroad, which should be synchronized.
These airlines need certain specific slots because they have networks to serve and so, finding that the Naia could not provide them the slots needed, some airlines have shied away from flying out of the Naia.
To ease the congestion at the Naia, Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade has reportedly asked PAL, Cebu Pacific and AirAsia to allow those coming from Tacloban to land at Clark instead. The airlines have initially agreed, albeit with reservations and already, a business group in Tacloban is against the idea of being flown to Clark instead of the Naia.
Arcilla said the proposal is under close scrutiny, and after we craft certain policies, we will consult the stakeholders, business groups, travel associations in Tacloban, it’s an ongoing process.”
When told that the three airlines concerned have initially agreed, Arcilla said: “Yes, but the devil is in the details, how many routes.”
Lawmakers from the Eastern Visayas Bloc at the House of Representatives opposed the plan to transfer all Tacloban flights landing at the Naia to Clark International Airport in Pampanga.
Liberal Party Rep. Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar said the plan of the transportation agency would “kill tourism and other industries in the region.”
Evardone said the 14-man Eastern Visayas Bloc, which is composed of 12 regular district congressmen of Leyte, Samar provinces, Biliran and Southern Leyte, and party-list groups An Waray and A-Angat Tayo also opposed the plan.
“The Eastern Visayas Bloc in Congress strongly opposes the plan of the DOTr [Department of Transportation] to transfer all Tacloban flights to Clark,” Evardone said in media reports.
But Arcilla justified the plan, saying that there are many passengers from Northern Luzon, northern Manila, Camanava and Bulacan who wanted Clark because it is nearer to them.
At the same time, he agrees that the $2.4-billion North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) Project, connecting Bulacan to Manila, would be a big boon to Clark passengers.
“I am sure, under this administration, things will move faster, kasi noon puro drawing lang, eh [then it was mostly promises].”
On the other hand, Arcilla said those new carriers already operating in the country simply add more flights to their current schedules.
He said Ethiopian Airlines, which started in July 2016 with three flights, have now four flights to connect Manila to Addis Ababa, the capital.
This is also true with Qatar Airlines, which used to have eight flights per day but has now 14 daily flights between
Manila and Doha.
He said there are more, but couldn’t remember them at the moment and promised the BusinessMirror to provide the
figures.