Proper airport infra to boost Phl tourist arrivals

CEBU, Philippines — If the government and the private sectors in the Philippines could forge a stronger tie up in working towards increasing air access, the country is not far from hitting or even surpassing its tourist arrival targets.

CAPA Centre for Aviation chairman emeritus Peter Harbison believes that the Philippines has huge potential in joining Asia’s fast growing destinations like China and India, if efforts in promoting the country, as well as putting right infrastructure for air access are well coordinated between the government and private sectors.

Harbison said that a lot of low cost carriers (LCCs) are interested in entering the Philippines but airport access is one of the important considerations.

In fact, airline companies from other region are coming in because Asia has become much more attractive especially for LCCs.

While the market is currently competitive, it still has a huge room for more operators because “the market is very dynamic.”

The rapid growth of the middle class market in the Philippines is one of the driving force for LCCs to consider the Philippines as fertile ground for expansion, he added.

LCCs account for 14 percent of the Northeast Asian total air seat capacity. The region is still dominated by full-serviced carriers.

Large chunk of the tourism market is served by LCCs, full-serviced airlines on the other hand serve mostly the business, corporate and the affluent markets.

As of 2018, the Philippines recorded 40 new international flights offering an additional of 1.6M new air seats capacity.

North Asia is the Philippines’ biggest foreign market. About three million tourists from north Asian countries like South Korea and China visited the Philippines in 2018.

On the other hand, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) assured foreign LCCs that the Philippines is serious in making the country the premier gateway destination in Asia before the Duterte administration ends. (FREEMAN)