“Philippine Aviation must serve as a Pacific bridge between North America and Southeast Asia.”
This was how Victor Limlingan, an aviation expert, described one of the roles of the country’s aviation industry in the global stage.
A Public Policy Adviser with Asia Foundation and former member of the Civil Aeronautics Board, Limlingan is promoting Clark International Airport (CIA) as a hub for Asian low-cost carriers (LCC).
“(We need to have the) correct policy of liberalizing aviation in the country,” he told some 300 delegates to the Clark Aviation Conference last week.
The conference highlighted critical role of airports, outside Metro Manila, in easing air traffic congestion, identified infrastructure, and policy developments that will attract airport-related businesses.
He said that gateways like Clark will spur the growth of regional agri-businesses and employing highly skilled Filipino professionals.
This “Pacific bridge” also offers the possibility of berthing a Filipino global trading company, that will truly connect the country with the global movement of commodities and people, he said.
On the other hand, business travel has become important sector of that aviation bridge.
“Companies locate at business aviation facilities near general aviation airports for rapid access to customers and markets, generating jobs and tax income for local communities,” Joel Edmondson, general manager of Aviation Concepts LLC, says.
Aviation Concepts is a business jet charter company based inside the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
Edmondson believes that Subic Bay can become an aviation hub featuring technical training, maintenance, repairs and overhauling services, aside from aircraft handling, management, chartering, and air ambulance services.
He cited Seletar in Singapore, a general aviation airport, as a model “producing revenue in the billions of dollar annually.”
Edmondson said that CIA and Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA) could be the ideal gateways, since CIA has eight LCCs and four legacy airlines plying domestic and international routes, while SBIA is hub for general aviation activities, including business jet chartering services.
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman Robert Garcia says that both facilities complement each other.
“With CIA as a twin to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), SBIA provides the support services needed by both. CIA and SBIA become vital nodes for Philippine aviation,” Garcia said.
He said that because of congestion and rising costs in other Asian hubs like Hong Kong and Singapore, companies are looking at the airports in Central Luzon as potential base of operations. “In fact, we are already talking to two Asian jet chartering companies interested in SBIA” he added.
The two airports underpin the concept of the country’s new logistics center.
John Forbes, adviser to the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, said that stakeholders must have a common goal.
The idea of a Subic-Clark collaboration began in 1999 when then President Joseph Estrada broached the idea to then SBMA Chairman Felicito Payumo, Rufo Colayco, vice chairman of the Metro Clark Waste Management Corporation.
Prior to this, both economic zones treated each other as competitor, elbowing each other for a share of the foreign direct investments (FDI).
Since CIA and SBIA have been linked by a tollway, there has been significant growth in jobs, exports, and investment at the Subic-Clark complex, according to Forbes.