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CLARK FREEPORT: A travel group said on Thursday that the existing
Executive Order (EO) 500-A opens up a pocket open skies at the
Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in Clark and Subic
Bay International Airport (SBIA).
The said move provides for unlimited foreign
carrier flights into DMIA and SBIA from a carrier’s home country
without restrictions on capacity or type of aircraft.
“The people pushing for full liberalization,
particularly the Freedom to Fly Coalition, are misleading us.
Contrary to their claims, the executive order did not revoke open
skies, but merely clarified the implementing guidelines of EO
500,” the National Association of Independent Travel Agencies in a
statement said.
“It does not seek reciprocal benefits for
Philippine carriers,” Robert Lim Joseph, the association’s chair
emeritus said.
The real objective of open skies proponents,
Joseph said, is to pave the way for non-designated foreign airlines
to have access to DMIA in Clark, through the issuance of EO 500-B.
Joseph said foreign airlines would not have come
to the Philippines if there were no business opportunities adding
these carriers want a share of the lucrative overseas Filipino
workers market.
However, the foreign airlines, contrary to
assertions of lobby groups, would not bring in the tourists here, as
they will promote their countries first before the Philippines.
Cheap airfares fueled by undue competition,
Joseph believed, had forced several foreign airlines to abandon the
Manila route, disputing the claim of open skies backers that low
passenger traffic was the culprit.
The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) said it had
granted flying rights to several foreign carriers to fly out of
Clark, “but most of these carriers are interested in Manila and
not Clark or Subic.”
“We don’t have any problem with
liberalization, but we are also compelled to protect our national
interest,” said CAB lawyer Maria Elena Moro, chief of the Hearing
Examiners’ Division and concurrent assistant director, in a
published report.
Joseph said some foreign airlines are unfairly
competing with the local carriers and not keen on granting
reciprocity. “All they want is more seat entitlements, but would
only fly to profitable destinations.”
EO 500-B, he added, is bereft of reciprocity and
would make Filipino carriers second-class citizens that are denied
the same benefits granted to foreign carriers in Clark and Subic.
The EO proposed to carry out a unilateral, one-sided open skies
regime in DMIA and SBIA.
-- Francis Earl A. Cueto
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