IT is reassuring to read about Cebu Pacific Air welcoming an “open skies” policy for the Philippines, a policy that will most certainly be beneficial to our country. As reported, Lance Y. Gokongwei, president of Cebu Pacific, said that the flag carrier “fully supports the ratification of the Asean Open Skies Multilateral Agreement, which allows designated Asean carriers to operate unlimited flights between capital airports.”
Earlier, it was reported that local airlines, presumably Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific, were skeptical about the benefits of the agreement to them and wanted the government to defer action on it. Gokongwei’s statement is a welcome denial of that report.
We have gone a long way from the one-airline “plane always late” bad old days. We have now two “generally punctual” airlines. Under ownership of private-sector financial tycoons, our airlines are today competitive with larger foreign airlines. Perhaps, they are not as dominant but they are surely arriving at that status. From what experts tell us, what these airlines need to do is to keep up with technological developments in the industry, as well as observe simple administrative procedures that guarantee on-time arrivals and departures of flights to expand their business. Growth will continue as they respond to competitive challenges from domestic and global sources.
The agreement gives carriers of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) member-countries, among other things, unlimited freedom to operate between capital cities, as well as to fly from their home country to a foreign country without that foreign country’s approval. Further, it allows any carrier to fly between two foreign countries during flights originating or ending in the airline’s home country. The benefits to the country that can flow out of the arrangement will include increases in tourist arrivals and expanded services to our overseas countrymen and countrywomen, both enriching our external earnings. To our airlines themselves, the impact will consist of palpable improvements to their bottom line.
As of the moment, the Philippines has not ratified the agreement, because it wants to introduce modifications necessitated by Philippine circumstances. It is said that the Philippines wants “to make clear that the protocols are subject to the availability of slots in Manila.” If the authorities are worried that Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport, because of its smallness, will not serve the purpose, so be it. Let us make the agreement the stimulus to speed up work on the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, enlarge and further modernize it, so that we don’t make an excuse that is clearly an insult to ourselves, a confession of lack of resources and wholesale underdevelopment, but instead respond to the opportunities of the larger regional community of nations to which we belong.
By its timetable, the multilateral agreement’s implementation should have begun this year in preparation for the integration of Asean into one economic community. The rest of Asean is awaiting our action. Let’s speed up the insertion of modifications appropriate to us and acceptable to our neighbors. Any delay in this action can only be injurious to our national interest.