Roxas to protect local airlines

Manila Bulletin
October 10, 2011

MANILA, Philippines -- Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II plans to inject modifications in the recently implemented Open Skies policy of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) to protect the local airline industry from stiff competition with foreign carriers.

During his presentation of the DoTC’s 5-year infrastructure development plan to the business community, Roxas said he has instructed the Civil Aviation Authority (CAB) to balance local and foreign interests in granting air rights to ply domestic routes.

“We shall support modified open skies in order to support our country’s tourism promotion efforts. We shall be mindful though that this is not to be at the expense of our domestic commercial airline industry. As I did at the WTO in battling for fair trade, likewise I shall be for fairness in the opening up of our domestic airline markets,” he said.

It was recalled that several groups in the aviation and tourism sectors have assailed the DoTC, under the leadership of then Secretary Jose “Ping” de Jesus, for opening up domestic flights to foreign airlines without having to demand for reciprocity in seats.

Aside from modifying the Open Skies policy, Roxas said the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) is focused on regaining the country’s Category-1 status and meeting the international standards for aviation safety.

He said the CAAP has been working on this over the last year and that he has made attaining full compliance with the international standards of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the International Civil Aviation Organization one of the DoTC’s priorities.

“Out of the 127 total individual findings of the FAA and ICAO, we believe we have satisfactorily attended to all but seven. Among the remaining unresolved items are the hiring of additional employees, the comprehensive training here and abroad for all CAAP inspectors and the conduct of regular flight checks for pilots and aircraft,” he said.

Roxas disclosed that the FAA is scheduled to conduct a “technical review” of the Philippines’ airline industry this December and that the government is optimistic about the progress that the DoTC and CAAP have made.

“This is a good example where our cultural predisposition for the easygoing, ‘okay lang’ and ‘pwede na yan,’ ‘bahala na’ clearly hurts us. The principal operating requirement for Category 1 status is quite simple: The setting up of objective international best practice standards and the unrelenting and rigorous application thereof,” he added.

To further boost tourism, Roxas also said the government plans to increase the handling capacity and eventually reduce the load of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Citing the records of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), Roxas said the congested NAIA is currently operating beyond its rated capacity. NAIA caters to an average of 43 movements every hour, this is beyond the standard weighted capacity of 36 movements.

“Our goal is to increase the handling capacity of the airport by improving its ‘cycle rate.’ We shall do this by constructing first one, then another rapid exit taxiway to reduce runway occupancy time; thus, shorten the 1-minute and 40-second cycle for each movement. This will take a few hundred million pesos and up to a year as we can only do construction work during the airports ‘downtime,’ which is from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m.,” he said.

Roxas added that he will continue De Jesus’ plan to free up space at the vicinity of NAIA and eventually reduce the passenger load for NAIA Terminals 1, 2 and 3 to other nearby airports.

“More near term, we also shall be reducing the load on the runway and taxiways by transferring general aviation to either Sangley and/or Lipa air bases. This is already in the works and we have started with the flying schools by restricting their takeoff and landing times, as well as helping them relocate to other sites. Private flights, particularly propeller aircraft, will soon follow,” he added.

Roxas said the reforms that he will inject to the DoTC’s management of the air sector, and the rest, are all aimed to protect the millions of passengers who use the public transportation system.

“We shall maintain the strict, consistent, effective fair and transparent standards in the application of these myriad regulations aimed at protecting the millions of passengers who use our public transportation system,” he said.