For want of a nail…

For want of new spare parts, the year opened with chaos reigning at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Public frustration over the eye-watering prices of onions was replaced by dismay over the New Year’s Day disaster at the NAIA, which affected nearly all other airports in the country (and many others overseas).

From what we can piece together from transport officials, a cooling blower of the Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Systems for Air Traffic Management conked out. This made the CNS / ATM’s uninterrupted power supply break down. A backup UPS was supposed to kick in, but did not.

Engineers of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), which runs the CNS / ATM, then tried to connect to the commercial power grid. But the 220-volt CNS / ATM was incompatible with the 380-volt commercial line.

This led to jokes that even fools know the consequences of plugging a 220-volt appliance into a 120-volt outlet.

The New Year’s Day disaster at the NAIA, of course, was no laughing matter. In this tightly interconnected world, the flight cancellations disrupted global air travel.

Among the thousands who were stranded as a result were overseas Filipino workers returning to their host countries after the Christmas break. Many of them are not residents of Metro Manila and have limited means to find temporary accommodations outside the NAIA while waiting for their flights to push through. Flight rebooking, especially if there are interconnections, could mean delays of several days.

It’s no fault of the airlines so it is not their obligation to shoulder such expenses, but they chipped in anyway, possibly with the urging of transport authorities.

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The CAAP or the Manila International Airport Authority could shoulder some of the expenses. As transport officials have said, however, there aren’t even funds to buy the spare parts that could have averted the UPS failure or upgrade or replace its backup system.

This upgrade could have been undertaken during the long shutdown of the NAIA at the height of the COVID lockdowns. But the CAAP said any funding for the upgrade went (supposedly) to the pandemic response.

Apart from the great inconvenience to passengers across the country and abroad, there is the damage to the Philippines’ image as a travel destination.

The world is used to flights in the Philippines being disrupted by typhoons, severe thunderstorms and even volcanic eruptions. But a disruption, which could last four days, due to a malfunctioning spare part in the air traffic management system?

Travel industry players are sanguine about it, saying any blow to the country’s image would be only for the short-term.

Maybe they are right. After all, the NAIA has only in recent years shucked off its consistent ranking in travel websites as one of the world’s worst airports. The poor reviews did not stop tourists from coming to the Philippines.

Still, the poor reviews must have also been among the factors that have made the country trail its neighbors in terms of tourism. An occasional glitch can be overlooked, but if the flight disruptions occur with regularity, travelers will look for other destinations – and there are many attractive alternatives in this region.

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The poor state of the NAIA is made starker by the fact that several of the world’s top-rated airports are in the region. Singapore’s Changi, Seoul’s Incheon and the two Tokyo airports consistently compete for the annual honor of being chosen as the world’s best gateway in various traveler-based and aviation industry awards.

The NAIA is a microcosm of our standing in the region. The original Manila International Airport was one of the first modern airports in Asia. Our neighbors, however, were not content to simply build their own airports. They aimed to be among the world’s best, to become airline hubs, aware that air connectivity is critical for the tourism industry.

In contrast, foreign airlines one by one terminated direct flights to Manila, due to the common carriers tax of 3 percent plus 2.5 percent Gross Philippine Billings tax on gross turnover, which hurt long-haul flights. Air France-KLM was the last to pack up in April 2012. Even hotels lost business, as airline crew no longer stayed for one or two nights before their return flights.

The carriers tax was eventually scrapped in 2013 by then president Noynoy Aquino, but we’re still struggling to get back those foreign flights.

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As the world emerges from the crippling COVID pandemic, we have to work doubly harder than neighbors to draw visitors because the Philippines is not contiguous to the Southeast Asian mainland. Singapore, for example, can offer multi-country tour packages, with flight hops of just one to two hours from Changi to Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and other regional destinations.

The flights from the Southeast Asian capitals to Manila take from three to four hours. Some foreign diplomats have told me that their compatriots who visited the Philippines complained about spending an entire day of their limited vacation time simply to reach Boracay, waiting for their interconnecting flight from Manila and then for the boat ride to the island.

With China ending its zero-COVID policy, a killer surge is dampening any revenge travel in that country. But the surge will inevitably end, and the Chinese will resume traveling again.

To lure those Chinese visitors, our travel industry players will have to compete with our neighbors’ multi-country tour packages. They must also contend with the warning from Beijing to its citizens about the possibility of kidnapping and other criminal assaults in the Philippines perpetrated by Chinese-led gangs linked to offshore gaming operators. President Marcos has yet to make up his mind on whether or not to scrap POGOs.

We have world-class tourism attractions, and with proper promotion, our heritage, culinary and medical tourism can compete with the world’s best. But the travel and tourism sector isn’t getting sufficient attention.

Tourism accounts for a hefty chunk of our neighbors’ gross domestic product. The sector and its downstream industries can create the types of livelihood that can make Filipinos see no need to leave their families for decent employment abroad. Such livelihood sources can reduce urban migration and promote rural development.

Boosting tourism includes developing air connectivity, not just in our main gateway but also in secondary airports that serve top tourist destinations.

We’ve seen some progress since the days not too long ago when cows and goats freely crossed the tarmac in our secondary airports. As the NAIA chaos showed, however, we still have a long way to go.