Amid another lockdown, Philippine-based carriers continue to face turbulent skies. In fact, the Air Carriers Association of the Philippines or ACAP plans to meet with the Philippines government to discuss more ways on how the government may help the aviation industry.
The ACAP consists of airline members Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, and AirAsia Philippines.
The local airline industry continues to face huge challenges hampering them to be on the road of recovery. One such problem which was never addressed is the inconsistent domestic travel requirements from each Local Government Unit or LGU. It seems like the national government is having a hard time getting hold of the LGUs for a more linear set of requirements.
In fact, we feel that more passengers would rather travel international than domestic wherein it should have been the other way around. Its like we are killing our own travel and tourism industry.
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A lockdown or ECQ is totally bad news for the airline industry as they are forced to cancel flights again due to the low demand and restriction. Domestic travel is particularly hammered.
As such, the ACAP is asking help once again from the government. The bank guarantees which the airlines are requesting are still on pending status. However, the waiving of airport and parking fees were granted during Bayanihan 2 but this has ended already. Hence, the need for our local carriers to request for an extension of the waiving of the fees particularly due to another round of ECQ.
According to AirAsia Philippines CEO Ricky Isla, they were forced to cancel 40% of their flights. Badly hit was those flights to leisure destinations particularly Boracay and Bohol.
Inconsistent and numerous domestic travel requirements is greatly affecting local tourism
The airlines had also been requesting the government to adopt a more linear set of travel requirements among all LGUs. In fact, traveling domestic is more complicated than traveling international due to the number of requirements, some are unnecessary already. Airlines are also requesting the national government to ease up travel requirements for vaccinated passengers. In fact, 90% of vaccinated travelers have said that they will travel more if there are less requirements like vaccine cards.
While airlines in other countries are concentrating to rebuild their domestic tourism sector first, airlines in the Philippines are finding it hard to recover. Just lately, Cebu Pacific has announced that flights to Hong Kong, Taipei, Nagoya, and Osaka will resume. Philippine Airlines has now added quarantine free flights to Guam twice a week.
Airlines are still optimistic that they will be able to recover
Despite all the struggles, Philippine carriers remain optimistic that they will recover from this crisis. AirAsia Philippines has set its priorities on rebuilding its domestic and international flights. They will further strengthen their cargo business and implement more digital services via their SNAP portal. They also look forward to reopen its Clark hub from the newly opened Clark International Airport terminal 2 sometime November and December.
The Philippine commercial aviation industry remains resilient amidst all the challenge they continue to face. We just hope that the national government would cooperate a little more to give into the little requests our airlines have. These requests will definitely help them by leaps and bounds.
For now, we just hope that Philippine carriers get to see clearer skies ahead after facing turbulent clouds! As they say, every aircraft has its limits. Stretch them to their limits and beyond, and it may go crashing. Our airlines definitely need help. They are now stretched to their limits and can only take so much. Help from the government will matter a lot for them.
