DOT exec: Give incentives to airlines

CEBU, Philippines — Giving airport incentives seems to be the new game in luring airlines.

As the Mactan-Cebu International Airport seeks to attract more airlines to mount new routes to and from Cebu, the airport may have to look at giving incentives to carriers as among its priorities.

Erwin Balane, route development head at the Department of Tourism, said giving incentives has become a key factor now in encouraging airlines to fly to a destination apart from the potential passenger traffic.

“The game now is not only the numbers that sustain the traffic but also the incentives,” the official said in a recent interview in Cebu City.

He said that MCIA has been providing discounts to airlines in its effort to mount more flights from the country’s second busiest air hub.

These include landing fee, take-off fee, and parking fee, among other aviation fees.

For instance, Balane said Singapore’s Changi Airport, despite being flown by so many airlines globally, still gives substantial incentives to airline companies.

This is something, he said, that MCIA should see as its main proposition to easily lure airlines to fly to Cebu.

While incentives are necessary, airlines also look into the sustainability of passenger traffic.

Furthermore, Balane said MCIA is primarily looking at connecting Cebu to more cities in China, where demand for leisure travel is so huge.

Moving forward, the airport is also working to have direct air connectivity to medium-haul markets like Australia and New Zealand as well as long-haul markets like Europe and North America.

Among the most notable new routes to Cebu are the short-haul flights coming from Northeast Asian cities in Korea, China and Japan. These are the markets that have been contributing the bulk of passenger traffic to Cebu.

But one of the most significant in recent years was Emirates’ medium-haul direct air connectivity from Dubai to Cebu, now served daily. Because of the vast connection of flights from Dubai to Europe, North America and the Middle East, it gave the Filipinos from Visayas and Mindanao islands the opportunity to fly direct to or via Dubai in less than a time than flying out of Manila, which normally takes them a day to wait for their next flight via the same route.

The route from and via Dubai to Cebu also gave the European, North American and Middle Eastern markets the opportunity to visit Cebu more efficiently in terms of time and cost. — JMD