PH airlines named among Asia’s ‘most aggressive’

TOULOUSE, France—Philippine air carriers are among the most aggressive in Asia Pacific in terms of fleet expansion, as operators seek newer planes to serve increasing demand while bringing down costs, an official of France-based aircraft manufacturer Airbus S.A.S. said Friday.

Airbus senior vice president for sales Jean Francois Laval said that demand for new planes was expected to ramp up in the coming years on top of existing orders made by the country’s top airlines.

But investments in infrastructure like airports were also needed to match growing demand.

Laval spoke to visiting Philippine journalists at the turnover ceremony of flag carrier Philippine Airlines’ first A330-300 long-range jet, which is part of an order of 20 planes of this model.

Philippine Airlines has firm orders for as many as 65 Airbus planes valued at about $9.5 billion while Cebu Pacific, the country’s biggest budget carrier, said it ordered 49 Airbus planes worth about $4 billion, their respective officials said in previous interviews.

“All the ingredients are there with a high growth rate, young population and a country with lots of islands,” Laval said. “Air transport is the only solution. It is a key enabler of growth.”

“The Philippines is quite aggressive, Indonesia as well, which is logical because these are where growth is fastest in the region,” Laval said, adding that Chinese carriers have also been expanding their fleets rapidly.

Indeed, Asia-Pacific is Airbus’ single largest market in terms of its order backlog, at 35 percent of 5,227 planes worth $735 billion, Simon Azar, Airbus’ manager for twin aisle models like the A330, said in a separate presentation.

With growing demand, both within and outside the region, Asia Pacific is expected to increase its lead in passenger traffic by 2032 to 34 percent compared to 29 percent today, Azar said.

The Philippines, however, would need to ramp up infrastructure investments to support the airline industry, in the form of new airports and highways, Laval said.

“It would need to grow together—you can’t have one behind the other,” he said.

This area is mainly being handled by the Department of Transportation and Communications. But the agency has been having difficulty in bidding out these projects, in particular, those under the Aquino administration’s public private partnership program.

For instance, the P17.5-billion deal to expand and rehabilitate the Mactan- Cebu International Airport, the country’ second-busiest  air gateway, has been delayed several times this year although the DOTC says it can be auctioned off by Nov. 15.

“Transportation is key for most of these countries [like the Philippines],” Laval said, noting that an ideal solution was to build more roads, trains and airports with a large capacity.