OFWs take center stage in battle for more open skies in Clark
Proponents for a more liberalized aviation policy for Clark are taking a different tack. Instead of the usual highbrow discussions on aviation policies, they are focusing the limelight on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
A press conference on April 23 by the Center for Strategic Initiatives, a local non-governmental organization that focuses on policy issues, will highlight the difficulty that OFWs face when booking flights to their work destinations abroad.
"It is not fair that these heroes who send foreign remittances to our country cannot leave on time even if they have jobs already waiting for them overseas," Rene Diaz, chairman of the center, told abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak in a phone interview.
Long waiting time
In a draft of a statement to be handed out to the media, the queues for available seats in flights for Middle East and Asian countries, both hosts for almost 2.5 million OFWs, will be used as a case in point.
The draft states: "There are around 1.5 million OFWs in the Middle East while there are around 960,000 OFWs in Asia. And yet there are only 30 weekly flights between the Middle East and the Philippines while there are 324 weekly flights between Asia and the Philippines. This has resulted in our OFWs having to line up for up to six months for flight bookings to meet their deployment dates and leave schedules."
Inevitably, there will be discussions on the importance of liberalized air policy in airports outside Manila, such as Clark.
About 533,000 passengers flew through Clark's sprawling Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in 2007. It sits on a 167,000-hectare expanse and the terminal is set to expand and accommodate up to eight million passengers by 2010.
Role of Clark
Passenger traffic in Clark absorbed what Manila's congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminals could not already service. Physically and structurally, NAIA is limited with a single runway and the nine million a year capacity of its two international airport terminals.
Clark is strategically located to accommodate those from Northern and Central Luzon, home base to some 2.1 million OFWs whose aggregate remittances of $5.6 billion a year account for almost 40 percent of the total $14 billion dollars sent home by workers abroad.
Most international flights to Clark are currently outside the usual air services agreements, which the Philippine air panel negotiates and agrees with other countries on bilateral terms. Air services agreements are classic tools in the highly regulated world of global aviation to limit capacities that airlines from different countries could mount. The limitations are usually expressed in number of seats per week and the type of aircrafts.
Clark experiment
Most flights to and from the Philippines' main gateway, the Manila airport, are covered by bilateral air services agreements. Clark, on the other hand, has become an experiment of sorts for what could be unleashed when some of the restrictions in aviation policies are relaxed. For benefiting the entrepreneurs and stirring the tourism potentials of Clark and its neighboring regions, the experiment has been touted as a success, further boosting Clark's cheerleaders for aviation liberalization to push for more.
So far, most of the past discussions on Clark's future as a passenger—and also cargo—hub have remained cerebral. It was inevitable. The aviation industry has intricate rules and complex language.
For example, non-designated budget airlines of a country being granted fifth freedom rights, which refers to, say Malaysian airline Air Asia, being allowed to take a "beyond point" after it does a usual strict and regulated point-to-point route, such as Kuala Lumpur-Clark. With a fifth freedom, from Clark, the carrier can move on to Hanoi or Macau or some other destination.
Another is allowing legacy or full-service airlines like Cathay Pacific and Philippine Airlines to freely fly from Clark especially when provisions for seat capacities in the air negotiations have already been fully utilized. At the moment, the 13,000-a-week seat capacity between Manila and Hongkong are all used up, so airlines from both countries, as long as they get necessary permits from regulatory bodies in the Philippines, could mount flights to and from Clark. The same with local budget airline Cebu Pacific, which had been clamoring for more elbowroom to mount flights between Hongkong and Clark.
EO500-B needs approval
These two scenarios, however, could only be realized as soon as a particular version of the Executive Order (EO) 500-B is signed. The EO has been through various versions since 2005.
One version of EO 500-B is said to have incorporated the tourism department's request to include a marching order to the air panel to conduct more air talks with former Russian territories in Eastern Europe, which the department has been targeting lately.
More than 90 percent of tourists arrive in the Philippines by air.
More tourists, however, mean more aircraft seats needed. Without additional international flights—whether by local or international airlines—more tourists mean fewer seats for OFWs en route to their work destinations abroad or coming home.
Reminder to GMA
Even business groups have recognized this in the past years. A letter dated November 30, 2007 addressed to President Gloria Arroyo served as a reminder of how opening up Clark has been constant in pronouncements during the National Competitiveness Summit, the annual Philippine Business Conference, and other events.
The letter cited this: "Your administration has enunciated an inspiring vision of a Clark-Subic Mega Logistics Hub, a vision very difficult to attain without EO 500-B."
The letter was presented to president Arroyo in January 2008. Various stakeholders in Clark, the different foreign chambers, former tourism secretaries, and various local government officials signed it.
When the President's birthday in April 5 passed, the proponents of EO 500-B realized they needed to call attention to it once again.
The April 23 press conference is supposed to serve that purpose. By LALA RIMANDO - abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak
A press conference on April 23 by the Center for Strategic Initiatives, a local non-governmental organization that focuses on policy issues, will highlight the difficulty that OFWs face when booking flights to their work destinations abroad.
"It is not fair that these heroes who send foreign remittances to our country cannot leave on time even if they have jobs already waiting for them overseas," Rene Diaz, chairman of the center, told abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak in a phone interview.
Long waiting time
In a draft of a statement to be handed out to the media, the queues for available seats in flights for Middle East and Asian countries, both hosts for almost 2.5 million OFWs, will be used as a case in point.
The draft states: "There are around 1.5 million OFWs in the Middle East while there are around 960,000 OFWs in Asia. And yet there are only 30 weekly flights between the Middle East and the Philippines while there are 324 weekly flights between Asia and the Philippines. This has resulted in our OFWs having to line up for up to six months for flight bookings to meet their deployment dates and leave schedules."
Inevitably, there will be discussions on the importance of liberalized air policy in airports outside Manila, such as Clark.
About 533,000 passengers flew through Clark's sprawling Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in 2007. It sits on a 167,000-hectare expanse and the terminal is set to expand and accommodate up to eight million passengers by 2010.
Role of Clark
Passenger traffic in Clark absorbed what Manila's congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminals could not already service. Physically and structurally, NAIA is limited with a single runway and the nine million a year capacity of its two international airport terminals.
Clark is strategically located to accommodate those from Northern and Central Luzon, home base to some 2.1 million OFWs whose aggregate remittances of $5.6 billion a year account for almost 40 percent of the total $14 billion dollars sent home by workers abroad.
Most international flights to Clark are currently outside the usual air services agreements, which the Philippine air panel negotiates and agrees with other countries on bilateral terms. Air services agreements are classic tools in the highly regulated world of global aviation to limit capacities that airlines from different countries could mount. The limitations are usually expressed in number of seats per week and the type of aircrafts.
Clark experiment
Most flights to and from the Philippines' main gateway, the Manila airport, are covered by bilateral air services agreements. Clark, on the other hand, has become an experiment of sorts for what could be unleashed when some of the restrictions in aviation policies are relaxed. For benefiting the entrepreneurs and stirring the tourism potentials of Clark and its neighboring regions, the experiment has been touted as a success, further boosting Clark's cheerleaders for aviation liberalization to push for more.
So far, most of the past discussions on Clark's future as a passenger—and also cargo—hub have remained cerebral. It was inevitable. The aviation industry has intricate rules and complex language.
For example, non-designated budget airlines of a country being granted fifth freedom rights, which refers to, say Malaysian airline Air Asia, being allowed to take a "beyond point" after it does a usual strict and regulated point-to-point route, such as Kuala Lumpur-Clark. With a fifth freedom, from Clark, the carrier can move on to Hanoi or Macau or some other destination.
Another is allowing legacy or full-service airlines like Cathay Pacific and Philippine Airlines to freely fly from Clark especially when provisions for seat capacities in the air negotiations have already been fully utilized. At the moment, the 13,000-a-week seat capacity between Manila and Hongkong are all used up, so airlines from both countries, as long as they get necessary permits from regulatory bodies in the Philippines, could mount flights to and from Clark. The same with local budget airline Cebu Pacific, which had been clamoring for more elbowroom to mount flights between Hongkong and Clark.
EO500-B needs approval
These two scenarios, however, could only be realized as soon as a particular version of the Executive Order (EO) 500-B is signed. The EO has been through various versions since 2005.
One version of EO 500-B is said to have incorporated the tourism department's request to include a marching order to the air panel to conduct more air talks with former Russian territories in Eastern Europe, which the department has been targeting lately.
More than 90 percent of tourists arrive in the Philippines by air.
More tourists, however, mean more aircraft seats needed. Without additional international flights—whether by local or international airlines—more tourists mean fewer seats for OFWs en route to their work destinations abroad or coming home.
Reminder to GMA
Even business groups have recognized this in the past years. A letter dated November 30, 2007 addressed to President Gloria Arroyo served as a reminder of how opening up Clark has been constant in pronouncements during the National Competitiveness Summit, the annual Philippine Business Conference, and other events.
The letter cited this: "Your administration has enunciated an inspiring vision of a Clark-Subic Mega Logistics Hub, a vision very difficult to attain without EO 500-B."
The letter was presented to president Arroyo in January 2008. Various stakeholders in Clark, the different foreign chambers, former tourism secretaries, and various local government officials signed it.
When the President's birthday in April 5 passed, the proponents of EO 500-B realized they needed to call attention to it once again.
The April 23 press conference is supposed to serve that purpose. By LALA RIMANDO - abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak
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