Pocket Open Skies Policy – At Last!

Woohoo! You bet I’m excited! It was more than a decade ago when I last took a flight out of the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA). Prior to that, I was even able to get a flight to Manila in the morning and back in the afternoon on the same day. There was no need to spend all eight hours on the road if I drove instead.

Yup, I missed those days, even if it did not last long. The lack of passengers later made it untenable for Air Philippines to operate. The closure of casinos also halted the flights by Mandarin Airlines. Further, the absence of the Fifth Freedom right for airlines, which does not allow connecting flights, limited the number of potential passengers and, thus, dampened their interests.

But there was FedEx. The operation of the SBIA was still economically feasible, therefore. With the increase in investments inside the Subic Bay Freeport, it was just a matter of time before commercial passenger airlines will again regularly operate.

But, FedEx left in 2009.

Anticipating that the SBIA might totally close in the absence of a replacement logistics airline, the SBFCC formed the SBIA Revival Committee.

It was composed of various organizations including representatives from the SBIA, the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce, and tourism-related companies. We had many meetings, even workshops, with the hope of encouraging airlines to set up shop here. But, we were grasping at straws. The continuous development of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) and the recent completion of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway at that time made it conveniently possible to fly out from the Clark airport instead of Manila. Good for us.

But what about our airport?

While a few pilot training schools came in and Pacific Pearl Airways, these were not enough to sustain the airport’s operation, not to mention the payment for the huge debt that SBMA is still servicing for the reconstruction and upgrade of the airport during the early days.

We were desperate. The committee’s work seemed to be for naught and we were losing heart. We do not want the SBIA to close down.

Then a glimmer of hope—the open skies policy. On November 8, the SBFCC wrote President Aquino endorsing a pocket open skies policy for the SBIA.

Five days later, while at Subic, the President announced that the government “will start liberalizing its civil aviation industry as a means to increase tourist arrivals in the country.”

It took a while before anything was officially put on paper considering the opposition from the country’s flag carrier and other airlines who expect more competition and concerned about the absence of reciprocity.

This is not hard to understand. However, while a nationwide open skies policy may not be totally advantageous to all, pocket open skies for airports such as the SBIA, which are not regularly serviced by existing passenger airlines anyway, can be very beneficial.

On March 14, President Aquino at last signed two executive orders, EOs 28 and 29. EO 28 mandates the constitution of the Philippine Air Panels (PAP) to negotiate the Air Services Agreements while EO 29 grants the “third, fourth and fifth freedom rights and unrestricted capacities and frequencies to foreign air carriers, among others.” This is exactly what the Subic Airport need.

Obviously, these executive orders by themselves will not magically bring in airlines like flies on a piece of, well, pie. It is the market forces that dictate on any business undertaking after all. Any airline will only come in if there are enough passengers, inbound and outbound, period.

But, it is a good start. We now have a larger potential market. Like the SCTEx that brought in hundreds of thousands of tourists to the Freeport, we are hoping that the pocket open skies will do the same. It is up to us to make the Freeport worthy of a tourist visit. And yes, with a thriving airport, I may be able to fly in and out of the SBIA once again. That makes me excited!