PAL bucks ‘open skies’

Thursday, 02 December 2010 00:00
The Manila Times

Philippine Airlines (PAL) on Wednesday said it will support a “fair, reciprocal” open skies policy that would not undermine the operations of local carriers.

“It’s not the number of airline seats that is the [reason] behind the lack of tourist interest in the Philippines but the country’s negative image abroad, specially in the area of peace and order and security,” Ma. Socorro Gonzaga, PAL senior assistant vice president for external affairs, said in a statement.

Despite this perception, Gonzaga said the flag carrier is in the forefront of developing key markets to boost Philippine tourism.
She said PAL is the only local 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, the Philippines has been liberally granting entitlements to foreign airlines, the PAL official said.
At present, there are 47.4 million seats available to foreign and local carriers, she said.

Of the total number, 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 Philippines by air in 2009, only 2.9 million comprised tourists.

Gonzaga said the data belies the claim by proponents of open skies that there is a lack of airline seats to accommodate foreign visitors.

The Department of Tourism’s (DOT) target this year is 3.1 million tourists, progressively increasing to six 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,” Gonzaga said. Darwin G. Amojelar