Tuesday, July 1, 2008 [ philstar.com ]
Government and the local aviation sector are set to negotiate on an action plan to allow the Philippines to reap the full benefits of the opening up of the Clark to Hong Kong route to local carriers.
In an interview, Cebu Pacific president Lance Gokongwei told The STAR that while the recent air talks between the Philippines and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) have resulted in an increase in passenger capacity from zero to 6,400 passengers per week in the Clark-to-Hong Kong route, the company still has to review its plans as far as flying from that part of the country.
However, Gokongwei emphasized that the opening up of the route is a good benefit for the Philippines.
Previously, only foreign airlines such as Hongkong Airlines were allowed to fly out of Clark. “This agreement gives reciprocal rights for local carriers. This is a good step forward because local carriers were at a disadvantage,” he said.
But Gokongwei said mounting flights from Clark to Hong Kong will not be immediate. “We have to review our plans,” he pointed out.
For his part, Philippine Airlines (PAL) assistant vice president for government affairs Jocen Perez de Tagle, who was part of the air talks, said that although this route has been opened up to local carriers, it may take some time before they actually avail of it.
He explained that government agencies, including the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and other support agencies such as the Clark International Airport Corp. and the Clark Development Corp., and the local aviation sector will have to negotiate on how to first develop Clark as a viable route for Philippine carriers.
The negotiations, he said, will include making available property for local carriers where they can put up their own support facilities for the flights, including maintainance and catering services. “It might take a year or more before we can actually fly out of Clark,” he revealed.
“We first want to build a base, a network of three or four routes. We also would like to have aircrafts that will be stationed in Clark instead of flying them first from Manila,” he added.
De Tagle said PAL cannot fly immediately to Clark even if it wants to, until the support services are in place. “But we are working on it. We have plans to invest as much as $50 million to do all this. What is important though is that the Philippines has the rights to fly out of Clark,” he explained.
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