PAL supports ‘fair’, ‘reciprocal’ open skies

By Abigail Kwok
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 19:20:00 12/01/2010

MANILA, Philippines—Flag carrier Philippine Airlines on Wednesday said it supports an open skies policy but it should be "fair," "reciprocal," and protects local carriers.

During a public hearing conducted by the House transportation committee, PAL Senior Assistant Vice President for External Affairs Ma. Socorro Gonzaga said foreign carriers enjoy adequate access to Philippine skies, debunking claims there is lack of airline seats to accommodate tourists.

She said what the country really needs are more investments in infrastructure, a stable peace and order situation, and positive image abroad to attract tourists.

“It’s not the number of airline seats that is the behind the lack of tourist interest in the Philippines but the country’s negative image abroad, especially in the area of peace and order and security,” she said.
Despite this perception, Gonzaga said PAL, as the country’s flag carrier, has always been in the forefront in developing key markets to boost Philippine tourism.

She said PAL is the only Philippine carrier flying to and from several significant destinations around the world, making it one of the primary drivers of Philippine tourism.

Since the Ramos administration, she said the Philippines has been liberally granting entitlements to foreign airlines. At present, she said there are 47.4 million seats available to foreign and local carriers.
However, of these 47.4 million available seats, only 10.97 million seats – or 23 percent of total entitlements – were used by foreign and local carriers last year.

Of the 10.97 million passengers that came to the country by air in 2009, only 2.9 million were tourists.
Gonzaga said the data belies the claim by proponents of open skies that there is lack of airline seats to accommodate foreign visitors.

The Department of Tourism’s target this year is 3.1 million tourists, progressively increasing to six (6) million by 2016.

“Even without open skies, the six million tourists target of DOT by 2016 could be accommodated based on existing airline seats or entitlements available to both foreign and local carriers,” she stressed.

Gonzaga explained that seat entitlement to Clark is about 25.6 million, to Cebu, 20.7 million; to Davao, 20.3 million, and to Kalibo, Bohol, Palawan and Laoag, 19.6 million. In Manila, there are 21.2 million seat entitlements available yearly.

The sum is more than 47.4 million seats because many of the entitlements may be used for different airports, hence the overlap, Gonzaga said.

She said the figures effectively debunk the arguments of open skies advocates that the lack of airline seats is the principal reason for low tourist arrivals in the country.