Gov’t open to new round of air talks with US

The Philippine government is open to holding a third round of negotiations for the open-skies policy with the United States before the liberalized air transport agreement (ATA) is implemented on October 1 this year.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Franklin Ebdalin, said the Philippine air panel is studying the request of the US government to hold another round of talks, after the negotiations here collapsed last month.

“If the parties are willing to sit down and to compromise, then I do not see any reason why we could not come up with an agreement,” Ebdalin said.

It will be noted that in July, the US air panel headed by Laura Faux-Gable met with their counterparts headed by Edward Harun Pagunsan, Ebdalin, Tourism Undersecretary Evelyn Pantig and representatives of the different air carriers involved.

The talks was aimed at amending the 1982 RP-US ATA that would bring in three key changes in the aviation sector, namely, the maintenance of the frequency cap on passenger flights, implementation of the open-skies policy on cargo services, and setup of a code-sharing scheme.

During the meeting, the US failed to get RP panel’s nod for more cargo and passenger flights to and from the Philippines. In return, the Philippines failed to get the US approval for the local carriers to fly cargo and passengers within the US territory in direct competition with US carriers.

The Philippine panel stood firm on the policy of the government – liberalized aviation policy.

With regards to air cargo. American officials insisted that their Filipino counterparts legitimize the operations of US cargo firms.

At present, United Parcel Service (UPS) is operating in Clark, Pampanga. Its hub in Clark has a container capacity of three incoming and eight outgoing aircraft daily.

Last July, the US cargo carried added three more outgoing flights and two more destinations namely, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Bangkok, Thailand.

Other US freight forwarders operating in the country are Federal Express (FedEx), Polar and Northeast.

Of the four, UPS and FedEx were believed to have been violating not only the 1982 Air ATA between the US and the Philippines by flying to any destination around the world without first passing through their home country.

Such kind of operation was what the Philippine transport officials terms as “seventh freedom” which means US cargo carriers would fly to other countries as if they are Philippine carriers.

This is not allowed under “grandfather” provision in the Constitution, which requires that the operation of public utilities, like UPS and FedEx, are limited to Filipino nationals who have at least 60 percent stake in the companies.

During the talks, the US officials insisted that their Filipino counterparts legitimize the operations of US cargo firms.

The RP panel, despite what they described as “bullying stance” of the Americans, refused to budge. Hence, both sides reached a stalemate.

The country’s decision was backed up by major local carriers, including the Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific and Air Philippines which would be affected by the “unequal playing field” once the open skies takes effect on Oct. 1. (PNA)