‘Open skies’ not yet policy, says Palace

By Norman Bordadora
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:37:00 08/21/2010

MANILA, Philippines—An “open skies” policy that frees up the country’s air routes to foreign carriers has yet to be adopted by the Aquino administration, a presidential spokesperson told reporters yesterday.

Secretary Ricky Carandang of the Presidential Communications and Strategic Development Office said the matter is still up for discussion and further study by the economic cluster of the Cabinet.
This developed as Philippine Airlines (PAL), taking exception to an Inquirer story yesterday, clarified that it said nothing about “warning” the government about open skies.

“In fact, PAL’s message was that it will heed the President’s call to expedite the resolution of its labor problem,” PAL president Jaime Bautista said in a press statement yesterday. He said the story was “attributing to PAL something it did not say.”

In its press statement on Thursday, PAL said it welcomed President Aquino’s decision to consider opening the country’s skies to foreign carriers as one of the government’s options should the flag carrier and its workers fail to resolve their differences.

‘Wake-up call’

Bautista was quoted by the statement as saying the President’s pronouncement is a “wake-up call” for both PAL management and its flight attendants to immediately resolve their labor dispute.
The union of flight attendants had pulled out of conciliation under the Department of Labor and threatened to go on strike over management’s plan to spin off some employees.

“More than anyone else, PAL wants to put closure to its CBA with its cabin crew. But like any negotiated CBA, it must take into consideration not only the union’s demands but also the airline’s capacity to pay and meet those demands. It’s give and take,” Bautista said.

Carandang said that while it is not yet policy, open skies “has been discussed as a possible long-term solution to the problems of aviation.”

Complex problem

“It’s a very complex problem, which involves upgrading our procedures and security standards and all of that. Open skies is just one part,” he said.

“This administration has not yet decided to implement open skies,” he added.

The secretary was reacting to a statement of PAL that the government should first address the basic issue of inadequate aviation infrastructure before freeing up the industry to foreign players.
Carandang said it was agreed in a recent meeting of the Cabinet economic cluster that departments like those on tourism and on transportation study the open skies policy carefully before coming up with a recommendation to the President.

President Aquino on Wednesday raised the possibility of open skies if PAL continued to have problems with its labor force and cause problems in air travel in the country.

“Let’s make it clear. PAL is not against open skies. We just want it to be fair, reciprocal and its implementation should be phased-in and calibrated,” PAL president and chief operating officer Bautista had said in a statement.

He said the proposal for open skies should be studied carefully.

Bautista told of problems such as Manila’s congested runways and overburdened terminals that could worsen when the country’s air industry is liberalized.