06/26/2008 [ tribune.net.ph ]
Through the existing Executive Order (EO) 500-A, a pocket open skies regime is being carried out at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport at Clark and Subic Bay International Airport which provides for unlimited foreign carrier flights into DMIA and SBIA from a carrier’s home country without restrictions on capacity or type of aircraft.
“The people pushing for full liberalization, particularly the Freedom to Fly Coalition, are misleading us. Contrary to their claims, the Executive Order did not revoke open skies but merely clarified the implementing guidelines of EO 500,” said the National Association on Independent Travel Agencies (Naitas) in a statement yesterday. “It does not seek reciprocal benefits for Philippine carriers.”
Robert Lim Joseph, the association’s chairman emeritus, wondered why the recipients of this aviation policy, the foreign carriers, have not utilized their entitlements. “Why are they not rushing to open up flights to Clark?”
The real objective of open skies proponents, Joseph said, is to pave the way for non-designated foreign airlines to have access to DMIA at Clark through the issuance of Executive Order 500-B.
EO 500-B would, for instance, give Singapore Airlines unlimited rights to fly from Singapore to Clark, and onward from Clark to, say, Los Angeles.
“Under the current policy, foreign carriers enjoy more privileges to fly to Clark and Subic, like mounting 100 flights a day to Clark. But they are not doing it because what they really want is the privilege to carry passengers from Clark to third-country destinations and beyond,” Naitas stressed.
Joseph said foreign airlines would not have come to the Philippines if there was no business opportunity, adding these carriers want a share of the lucrative overseas Filipino workers market.
But the foreign airlines, contrary to assertions of lobby groups, would not bring in the tourists here as they will promote their countries first before the Philippines.
“The local airlines are the ones who are promoting and selling the Philippines abroad as a tourist destination. It’s the Philippine carriers that will sustain and develop our tourist traffic,” he said.
Cheap air fares fueled by undue competition, Joseph believed, had forced several foreign airlines to abandon the Manila route, disputing the claim of open skies backers that low passengers traffic was the culprit.
“The government must ensure that Filipino airlines get reciprocal grants under the liberalized aviation policy. That is the letter and spirit of equal opportunity and fair competition as enshrined in our Constitution,” Joseph said.
The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) said it had granted flying rights to several foreign carriers to fly out of Clark, “but most of these carriers are interested in Manila and not Clark or Subic.”
“We don’t have any problem with liberalization, but we are also compelled to protect our national interest,” said CAB lawyer Maria Elena Moro, chief of the Hearing Examiners’ Division and concurrent assistant director, in a published report.
Joseph said some foreign airlines are unfairly competing with the local carriers and not keen on granting reciprocity. “All they want is more seat entitlements but would only fly to profitable destinations.”
EO 500-B, he added, is bereft of reciprocity and would make Filipino carriers second-class citizens that are denied the same benefits granted to foreign carriers at Clark and Subic. The EO proposed to carry out a unilateral, one-sided open skies regime at DMIA and SBIA. “Gusto lang naming patas ang laban. Equal opportunity. Kawawa na ang bayan.”
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