“CAB is in charge of operation of our (aviation) industry. It said airlines can’t be compelled (to have regular flights at Clark) since the airlines make decisions based on business aspect and that there aren’t enough passengers (at Clark),” Guiao recalled.
“But we can’t accept that. There is enough study showing that Clark airport has its own catchment area from Regions
1 to 3, on top of the Cordillera Autonomous Region.
One study said that five million passengers from this catchment area fly via NAIA precisely because there aren’t flights available for them at Clark,” he noted.
Guiao said CAB should have the “political will to mandate airlines to also have regular flights at Clark as condition for granting landing rights at NAIA,” he noted.
“Of course CAB has power to mandate (airlines). In the airline industry, there are socalled missionary routes which were initially not profitable for airlines but later turned out to be viable business-wise,” Guiao stressed.
He noted that some years ago, such policy was imposed on the Philippine Airlines which was told to establish one flight to Batanes as condition for being given five flight rights to Cebu.
Guiao said that once the missionary flight becomes profitable, the airline is given the “right of first refusal (to grant other airlines such flight route). So the pioneering airlines can be entitled to exclusivity for the next five years, he added.
“CAB can adopt the same policy at Clark. If an airline wants 10 flights at NAIA, the CAB can impose that three of
these flights be at Clark instead,” he stressed.
Guiao lamented the failure of the government to fully utilize Clark airport during the last APEC summit in Manila, prompting airlines to suspend some 1,000 international and domestic flights.
“This same thing had happened during the visit of Pope Francis. I filed a resolution looking into it so that the aviation gridlock would not happen again, but then it did during APEC. Why not use Clark?” he said.
Earlier, Guiao also lamented the failure of the Department of Health (DOH) to accredit provincial hospitals and clinics to grant medical certificates required for first time overseas Filipino workers (OFW) as required by the Philippine Overseas Employment Adminstration (POEA).
“All of them, from Batanes to Jolo, had to go to Metro Manila for medical examinations required by the POEA, despite supposed OFW one-stop shops in provincial airports,” lamented Guiao.
Guiao said that limiting the medical requirement to hospitals and clinics in Metro Manila defeats the concept of one-stop shops for OFWs in provincial airports. “It just doesn’t make sense because there are modern hospitals, such as The Medical City in Clark, which can provide health examinations for first time OFW’s,” he noted.
“I suspect that this policy on medical requirements is one of the reasons why some firsttime OFWs from Northern and Central Luzon opt to leave via the NAIA instead of the nearer Clark airport,” he said.
