‘Open skies benefit not only tourists’

The benefits of liberalized air access into the Philippines reach more than just foreign tourists.

Mila Abad, president of the Freedom to Fly Coalition, said air access liberalization ensures that there are enough flights to the widest selection of destinations for passengers.

"Liberalizing air access likewise expands opportunities for trade and investments as it opens up accessibility for cargo services. This further results in benefits moving downwards to allied services such as hotels, restaurants, manufacturing and as far as the agricultural sector and farmers," she said.

Abad pointed out that this was the outcome of the deregulation of the domestic aviation scene when five new players entered the market.

Data gathered from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) revealed that in 1995 a round-trip ticket from Manila to Cebu cost P2,846. This dropped to P2,228 when liberalization was introduced. A bigger drop was experienced in the Manila-Zamboanga-Manila trip which cost P5,070 in 1995 but only cost P3,301 in 2000.

The local experience also increased access to other parts of the country. In 1995, there were only six million seats available. With more players, this increased to 10 million seats.

"More Filipinos were able to fly to other parts of the country and these domestic carriers will surely benefit in the international scene," Abad said. "They will be able to transport foreign tourists to other parts of the country since there will not be any cabotage."

Increasing air access will also provide the opportunity for the country to have a multitude of air carriers, not just Philippine Airlines (PAL), and for them to have the opportunity to fly to various routes and markets.