Open Skies will boost tourism, govt says

Manila Standard Today
by Jeremiah F. de Guzman
Wednesday, April 20, 2011

THE government on Tuesday defended its Open-Skies policy amid strong opposition from local carriers over the lack of reciprocity.

“It’s not reciprocity but the totality of mutual benefits that should be looked into and its effects on local tourism,” Civil Aeronautics Board executive director Porvenir Porciuncula said in a public hearing.

“I don’t think they [the carriers] will be hurt,” he said.

Porciuncula said the mutual benefits of the Open-Skies policy had less to do with the reciprocity of rights given to carriers but to the effects the policy would have on tourism, employment, investments and cash receipts as a result of an increase in inbound travel.

Porciuncula said the local carriers could also benefit from the increased inbound traffic since only they were allowed to fly domestic routes.

He said that part of the implementing rules of the order provided that if a foreign government failed to provide the same rights granted to its carriers operating in the Philippines within 12 months, the national government could revoke its carriers’ rights.

Two executive orders signed in March reorganized the country’s air negotiating and consultation panels and authorized the Civil Aeronautics Board and the air panels to pursue the liberalization policy more aggressively.

Benjamin Solis, the Transport Department’s aviation management adviser, said the latest executive orders provided the parameters for the aviation agencies of different countries to exchange rights or privileges.

“They may not be exact grants, but there are exchanges and they are mutually done by the bilateral partners,” Solis said.