The past year had indeed been difficult for the airline industry in the Philippines. The Covid-19 pandemic took its toll on the world, bringing air travel to a halt due to lockdowns. Airlines had no where to fly their airplanes, costs mounted, and losses sky rocketed.
The Philippine aviation industry was badly hit also. Despite having the advantage of domestic air travel as compared to other countries like Singapore, local government units or LGUs all had different safety protocols (not a standardized one) which made Filipinos more hesitant to travel, even locally. A lot of employees from the aviation industry lost their jobs, thousands of them.
However, recent developments have sparked hope, and we do see that our air travel industry may slowly pick-up soon.
Uniform Travel Protocols
The uniform travel protocols which the Philippine government’s Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) recently approved is a huge development. That means no more varying LGU requirements and like mandatory 14-day quarantine! No more travel documents that was such a hassle to get. Only time that one needs to undergo a 14-day quarantine is if they exhibit any symptoms of Covid-19.
However under IATF Resolution No. 101, travelers still have to undergo COVID-19 testing if required by the LGU of their destination or the provincial government, and authorities of highly urbanized cities and independent component cities.
The easing of travel requirements will indeed encourage more people to travel however, let us not forget to always observe minimum safety protocols like wearing face mask, face shield, and observing social distancing.
No more fears of quarantine!
Vaccines
While many are still afraid to be vaccinated, we do still see this as the start of recovery. First and foremost, there are a lot of private companies that have purchased Covid-19 vaccines from different pharma companies like Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZenica, and hopefully J&J for their own employees. Different LGUs have also ordered doses of vaccines.
Slowly, the fear of being vaccinated while fade away as more and more Filipinos are given jabs.
This will slowly open up the travel and tourism industry further, with more Filipinos travelling with less fear.
For more than a year, a lot of Filipinos were confined in their homes and within their area only. They will now have that urge to travel especially when those fears of travelling are gone. It may take time but things look a bit bright from now.
Air travel will make a good return, more airplanes will be flying, more passengers will go visit their relatives and families in the different islands, and Filipinos would love to tour the country again.
Air transportation is not just a luxury, it is now a need, especially if we live in an archipelago of 7,107 islands.
We hope this is the start of the airlines’ road to recovery.
