Travel executive says pocket open skies will not impact on tourist arrivals

MANILA, Philippines –  A tourism industry leader and open skies advocate said proposals to declare pocket open skies in some major provincial airports will have no effect on tourist arrivals unless other concerns are first addressed.  

Robert Lim Joseph, chairman of the Travel Cooperative of the Philippines said lawmakers recently thumbed down bills proposing pocket open skies in certain provincial airports supposedly to attract tourists.

“Apparently the bills are not needed at present because foreign airlines can readily come but only they are not using their entitlements,” he said.

The lawmakers’ action was prompted by testimonies from Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) deputy executive director Porvenir Porciuncula and Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) head executive assistant Atty. Joseph Ray Gumabon that an open skies policy does not guarantee more foreign flights and more tourists unless other relevant issues such as aviation safety, peace and order, security, and infrastructure are addressed.

They cited that even with the issuance of Executive Order 500 and 500-A declaring pocket open skies in the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in Clark, Pampanga, tourists did not come in droves and foreign airlines did not mount more flights. The budget airlines, they said, were already operating in Clark when EO 500 was issued by former President Arroyo in 2006.

“We cannot give for free our air rights. Why give our air rights for free if they (foreign airlines) won’t come anyway. We gave European, Asian and US carriers rights to fly to the Philippines but where are the tourists. The European carriers even left us,” Joseph said.

He, however, clarified that he is not against open skies as long as there is fair exchange of air rights with foreign countries. “If we give our rights for free, the Philippines will not have any bargaining position during air negotiations.”

Joseph said the government should concentrate on promotions, infrastructure development, maintenance of peace and order, and cleanliness to and from airports and tourist destinations.

He noted that the one-sided open skies being proposed by advocates would allow, for example, Singapore Airlines to fly from Singapore to Clark, then pick up passengers there and fly them to the United States. He said this is against national interest but good for the brokers because of GSA (General Sales Agent) commissions.

It was learned during the hearing that 47.4 million airline seats are available per year but only 10.97 million seats were utilized by both foreign and local carriers last year, disputing the claim by open skies proponents that there is lack of airline seats.

Out of these 10.7 million seats that were used, only three million seats were availed of by tourists.