More European carriers cease Manila flights

Another European carrier has joined the growing number of European airlines that have stopped flying to the Philippines for lack of traffic, particularly tourists, and cutthroat competition.

Effective last March 28, Swiss International stopped its flights to Manila.

Likewise, on April 1, Air France, another European carrier, ceased direct flights from Paris to Manila and will now be flying via Bangkok.

Earlier, British Airways and Alitalia stopped flying to the country, while KLM has ceased its direct Europe-Philippines flights and is now flying via Kuala Lumpur.

The National Association of Independent Travel Agencies (NAITAS), the largest organization of travel and tour operators in the country, expressed sadness over this development.

Robert Lim Joseph, NAITAS chairman, said while the country has given traffic rights and access to European carriers, market realities have made these airlines decide to stop their flights to the country.

"Now that we don’t have direct flights to the biggest tourist market in the world, it would be very difficult to promote our country in Europe. This means less tourists from Europe," Joseph said.

He said European traffic "will now instead go to our neighbors in Asia as they have direct flights and shorter traveling time."

"We have tourism officers in Europe but without direct Europe flights, how can our attaches promote the country," he pointed out.

To add to the problem, Joseph said, the country has increased the flight entitlements of Middle East and Asian carriers to Manila, enabling these airlines to poach on the RP-Europe market.

He said one major reason for the withdrawal of European carriers is the very low fare as Middle East carriers are dumping prices due to excessive frequencies given to these airlines.

The privately-owned European and Philippine carriers could not compete fairly with the government-subsidized Middle East airlines, and thus felt the economic pressure to cut back or stop operations to Manila.

What is ironic, Joseph said, is that we have accommodated Middle East carriers to fly more frequencies to our country but the Department of Tourism has not promoted Middle East traffic to the Philippines.

On the other hand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand have been aggressive in their promotional efforts, thus getting a substantial slice of the Middle East traffic.

He criticized the move of the Freedom to Fly Coalition (FFC) to open up Philippine skies purportedly to attract tourists.

"Without the market there will be no flights," Joseph said.

He refuted FFC’s claim that giving foreign carriers more flights would make the Philippines a hub. "What the FFC does not know is that these foreign airlines prefer flying via Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, so we have made our Asian neighbors the hub, not our country."