Local airlines can’t compete under open skies, says exec

An aviation industry executive raised doubts yesterday on the Philippines’ ability to compete with the mega carriers of other countries under an open skies environment.

Robert Lim Joseph, president of the Save Our Skies (SOS) movement, said open skies, although a sound concept, will not bring in the tourists as wrongly believed by open skies advocates.

He said these people are advocating open skies in the guise of attracting tourists, but reality will show that this (open skies) is not the answer to the country’s campaign to bring in visitors.

He said every year, some 7.5 million Filipinos leave the country for foreign destinations but only 1.2 to 1.5 million visitors fly in, the bulk of whom are overseas Filipino workers. Joseph stressed that despite the availability of airline seats, foreigners continue to shun the country. "Where are the tourists?"

He said there are more than 100 flights between Manila and Europe but not a single Philippine carrier flies to Europe because there are not enough inbound passengers, particularly European tourists, that will make the route profitable.

"The route is serviced by Asian, Middle Eastern and European airlines. Airfares are now cheap; tickets to London cost the same as they were in 1969. But where are the Europeans?" Joseph asked.

According to him, while the outbound market is thriving, the inbound traffic is slow as a result of several factors adversely affecting tourism. "The government has yet to address safety and security concerns and develop the infrastructure to and from the airports. We will soon have three terminals with just one runway."

"Progressive liberalization of Philippine skies is the only way to go," he stressed.

He said rather than just giving foreign airlines the upper hand (by opening Philippine skies)," why not get them to work with us?"

"Our local carriers would welcome the opportunity to code-share or enter into cooperative agreements. Example, if the foreign carriers that fly to Manila can bring in 30 travel media persons a year on familiarization trips and feature the Philippines in their inflight magazines, this is equivalent to billions of advertising dollars," Joseph pointed out.

He added that in exchange for allowing foreign carriers to take a piece of the lucrative outbound traffic, these airlines could give the Department of Tourism two tons of free cargo a year to transport promotional materials to trade shows.

"During the low season, why not invite their personnel to visit the Philippines? Surely, this is not asking too much at a time when flights going out of Manila are full but empty on the return flights," Joseph said.

He stressed that instead of allowing globalization to kill the local aviation industry, "let the local industry become global in partnership with global players."