Clark rises as RP's budget airlines capital Tonette Orejas Inquirer
November 12, 2006
CLARK SPECIAL ECONOMIC Zone--Singapore-bound Arlyn Rillera took the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) here on Tuesday.
"It's closer to home," Rillera says of why she preferred to fly from here than the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Metro Manila.
From where she lives in Sison, Pangasinan, the DMIA is more than 50 km away. Naia, on the other hand, is about 90 km south of this economic zone.
Aside from the distance, she says it is mainly the fare that convinced her to fly via the DMIA. The one-way trip on Tiger Airways cost her a little over P5,000, which is half the regular rates of other commercial airlines.
These advantages, this teacher swore, are giving her and her sister, Melissa, who works as a nurse in Singapore, the chance to be together as often as their jobs would allow them.
"My visit, and this is my second since September, is curing her homesickness," Rillera says before boarding. Singapore is three hours away.
On Tuesday, too, Dr. Erick Reiechardt, a German, was set to fly to Kuala Lumpur, the fourth time he would do so on DMIA-based Air Asia. Settling in Metro Manila with his Filipino wife, Reiechardt has maintained a job in Malaysia's capital as an industrial consultant.
"The low-cost flights are very great," he says, referring to his savings. He trimmed expenses by availing of rides worth 300 Malaysian ringgit or about P5,000 per flight. He used to spend 1,800 Malaysian ringgit or P25,000 for a seat in other airlines.
"My hotel is already paid," Reiechardt says.
He says he has no problem reaching Clark because he would travel only an hour through the North Luzon Expressway to reach DMIA. The gasoline, toll fee as well as the P2,700 tax on air travel do not cut much into the savings, he says.
It was not only the departure area that was bursting with passengers that day. Before noon, two planes arrived and the 400 or so passengers that got off looked mostly Filipinos, some of them traveling as families, and a sprinkling of Asian and Caucasian-looking tourists.
Coming to life Working at the DMIA in the last nine years, security officer Leonilo Labarda says it was only in 2004 that this former United States military airport started to come to life.
Gone are the days when workers here joked that only migratory birds, and occasionally distressed military and commercial planes, flew to Clark, he says.
"The situation has been improving because there are planes now," Labarda says in Filipino.
Victor Jose Luciano, president of the state-owned Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC), says Tiger Airways and Air Asia account for the "tremendous growth" in passenger traffic here.
The two carriers boosted the volume from 7,000 in 2003, started largely by South Korea's Asiana, to 500,000 as of June 2006, Luciano says.
Tiger Airways and Air Asia make two flights each to Clark daily. Air Asia flies to Macau once daily.
These budget airlines comprised more than half of the average 46 flights weekly to Clark.
China Rich serves the Hong Kong route while Asian Spirit and SeaAir cater to domestic routes.
Revolution Luciano says these figures spoke of a new trend, that "DMIA is the low-cost airline airport now of the country."
Recognition has come when the Center for Asia-Pacific Aviation cited the DMIA as "one of the four globally achieving low-cost airlines airports."
Luciano, who received the award in Singapore on Nov. 8, is the first president of CIAC who came from the airline industry. All his predecessors were retired military pilots.
The new position of DMIA came rather unplanned. "Events came by themselves," he says.
It sort of caught up with the low-cost airline revolution that started in the US in the early 1990s, in central Europe in mid-1990s and in Asia in 2002.
Airlines like JetBlue, Southwest and Ryanair used secondary airports with low-density traffic and less development in terms of infrastructure, he says.
"DMIA perfectly fits that description. But this is also used as an alternate airport to Naia," Luciano says.
He says DMIA charges lower landing and takeoff fees for the planes and collects lower terminal fees for passengers. Viva Macau, Thai Air Asia and two airlines from China are starting to be drawn by these perks.
Luciano says budget airlines help the market grow, not eat it away.
"The advent of flights in Clark did not affect the passenger load in Metro Manila by regular airlines. They kept their traffic. Many passengers are flocking here because travel became affordable. There was no shift," he says.
Travel boom The regions comprising north Philippines--Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Cordillera and Central Luzon--are a big market to deal with, given the nearly 20 million residents, some 1.5 million of whom are overseas Filipino workers.
Half of the 500,000 passengers that passed through Clark were OFWs, records showed.
The rise of Clark is also benefiting other airports.
In Luciano's view, "more people from the provinces are able to travel because of the affordability of the rates and they pass through various airports with Clark as a destination."
Hotels in Clark and nearby Angeles City have enjoyed the travel boom, reporting 90 percent occupancy rates since last year. Tourist arrivals in Central Luzon surpassed the 400,000 mark last year, most of them entering via the DMIA, tourism regional director Ronaldo Tiotuico says.
Servicing budget airlines is not an interim goal.
According to Luciano, the DMIA will support this sector as the government, through the CIAC, embarks on a "gateway program."
The aerotropolis master plan, which Francisco Licuanan III spearheaded when he chaired the Subic-Clark Alliance Development Council, aims to make DMIA as the definite gateway in line with President Macapagal-Arroyo's vision to make the economic zones the "best service logistics hub in Southeast Asia."
