For most of the country’s air travelers finding flights in the Philippines simply ‘too expensive’, tourism authorities are pointing to reliance on air travel as a key contributing factor as to why plane tickets are relatively high priced locally.
During the recent Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Tourism Forum held in Cebu City, top officials of the Department of Tourism (DoT) noted that dependence on air travel remains one of the biggest challenges in the country.
The officials noted that accessibility and seamless travel is one of the key focus areas in the ASEAN Tourism Sectoral Plan, the roadmap for the association’s 11 member-states in navigating the future of tourism and travel in the next five years.
According to tourism secretary Maria Esperanza Christina Codilla-Frasco, due to our country’s archipelagic nature, travelers have to rely on flights, making traveling from one destination to another difficult.
“It’s a 99.9 percent dependency considering the archipelago nature of our nation,” Frasco told the audience, including dozens of foreign delegates, in her message during the launch of the five-year tourism plan.
In alignment, the national government is currently coordinating with the three major airline companies in a bid to bring ticket prices down.
“Travelers have been complaining about exorbitant airfares to domestic destinations, particularly popular ones like Siargao, Palawan and Boracay,” she cited.
She added that another reason that could explain the high airfare costs could be the type of aircraft used.
To date, some airline operators are mostly using smaller aircraft that carry only 60 to 70 passengers, yet their operating costs are similar to larger jets that can accommodate up to 200.
Because of this, fares are often higher on routes served by smaller planes that, due to conditional factors, are sometimes the only option for reaching certain popular tourist destinations in the country.
In response to these issue, Frasco disclosed that aside from negotiations with airlines, a monthly publication of an airfare index has been proposed for transparency.
“We insisted on the part of the Department of Tourism na nararapat lang po na magkaroon tayo ng monthly publication of price index sa air fares,” she stated in a separate interview.
“And that this be fully transparent and that the Civil Aeronautics Board strictly enforce clear guidelines in terms of price ceilings,” she added to conclude.