Concepcion warns airline sector at risk of crashing if mobility restrictions not eased

Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion on Saturday warned that the financial viability of the country’s airline sector was at risk of crashing if stringent travel requirements were not relaxed.

During state-run PTV’s Laging Handa briefing, Concepcion said he had a meeting with local airline companies - Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, and. AirAsia - to seek the government’s help to relax mobility restrictions for both international and local travelers.

“We have no choice but to save our airlines sector kasi kung masira ang airlines sector, masisira ang tourism sector natin,” he said.

(If our airline sector crashes, our tourism sector will also nosedive.)

“This is the group that we’re trying to help [because] they’re in danger right now. The way I see it, of business viability,” he said.

“[This is] to protect them from bankruptcy and eventually closing the airlines… the airlines have to be viable,” he added.

Early this month, the flag carrier Philippine Airlines announced it filed for bankruptcy in the United States as part of its restructuring plan. The first day of hearings is scheduled for Thursday, September 9.

Under agreements with creditors, PAL will secure some $505 million for its recovery plan upon its exit from the process — the first tranche will be a $250-million facility debt to be pared down in the next five years, and the second tranche worth $255 million will be converted into equity.

Concepcion said that stringent travel requirements and mobility restrictions imposed by both national and local governments amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic could lead to the eventual crash of the local aviation industry.

“If the airlines do not become viable and they close masisira ang ibang sector natin like tourism. Malaking damay ang mangyayari dito,” he said.

(Other sectors like tourism will be badly hit. This will trickle down to other sectors as well.)

The presidential adviser said airlines are proposing to reduce the 10-day quarantine period for incoming travelers to seven days as this has been financially burdensome for them.

In a separate statement, Concepcion said airlines are also asking to allow increased mobility of vaccinated Filipinos to allow them to sustain the recovery of some of the billions of pesos in revenue lost since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March 2020.

Among the rules that they hope can be done away with were the multiple requirements for traveling, especially for domestic destinations, and expensive testing as most destinations require an RT-PCR test, and the long quarantines for arriving passengers from international flights.

PAL, in particular, proposed piloting a new protocol to reduce risk and cost to passengers of international flights.

Under the proposal, passengers will be tested 72 hours before departure and will undergo quarantine upon arrival, and take an RT-PCR test on the third day. If the result is negative, they can leave the quarantine facility on the fifth day and continue with a home quarantine.

Based on the data presented, testing before departure helps reduce positivity rate and risk, according to Concepcion.

The proposal would also enable passengers to save as much as P25,000 aside from enjoying a more comfortable quarantine in the comfort of their own home, he said.

The airlines also requested the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to consider placing North America on the list of green countries as this is the biggest market for local airlines.

According to PAL, it has earned $1 billion from the North American market before the pandemic.

Cebu Pacific, on the other hand, called on the IATF to release guidelines to allow fully vaccinated Filipinos to travel domestically to help start tourism and economic activities.

AirAsia, for its part, proposed the use of antigen testing if testing will still be required as it is more convenient and cheaper. — DVM, GMA News