Plane Delays and NAIA Bureaucracy

* This is my article yesterday in thelobbyist.biz.
-----------

A fried posted last January 27 one of his travel nightmares when he came home from Norway.

Another shameful episode at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport…. our plane was supposed to touch down at 1155AM but we had to go on circles for 3x of 15 minutes each because of the queuing problem in the run way. On the third round the Pilot of flight TG 620 had to make an emergency landing at Clark because our plane almost run out of fuel. I was both angry and ashamed as I heard all the side comments and complaints of the passengers especially those foreigners who just came for a business meeting today but had to miss out. We touched down around 3:00PM after yet another prolonged wait at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (Clark) because it took them more than half an hour to give us the go signal to take off after refueling! 

If we have only one runway that is functional how can we accommodate all those planes that come to our airport. How can we attract Tourists and Investors to come if this is the kind of infrastructure we have to offer. Why can't we just give up the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and build a more respectable and world class airport in Clark Field! The area has enough space for several runways….

Sabi nung British na katabi ko magagaling daw ang mga Pinoy professionals na katrabaho niya, nasisira lang daw tayo sa palpak na patakbo ng mga politiko at technocrats sa gobyerno! NAKAKAKAHIYA TALAGA TAYO!

Amen. I can only commiserate. So far I have not experienced a nightmare like that. 

Airlines want to economize fuel cost as much as possible so they can bring down their fares. If an airplane is made to wait for 10 minutes or more in the air, that should be several thousands of pesos of wasted fuel with no additional revenue. But the airline cannot bill the government through NAIA for such additional costs. Govt can only charge lots of taxes and fees on airlines but will not share with additional costs due to govt inefficiency or stupidity.

These days, each airline has to consider 4 factors in their pricing. (a) fare by competitor airlines on same routes, (b) domestic passengers taking the bus and RORO instead, for those going to Bicol, Samar, Leyte, Aklan, Capiz, Antique, Iloilo; (c) taking the boat direct from Manila pier to many provinces in Visayas-Mindanao, or (d) postpone the trip and not fly if the fares are high. So airlines must economize on many things especially fuel to give low fares as possible and attract more passengers. Like low fares to passengers who have no check in baggage. Lighter plane load, fewer fuel consumption. If they check in baggages, extra fee for 10 kg bag, 15 kg bag, 20 kg bag, etc.

Here comes government, occasionally causing wasteful use of fuel by airlines and not assuming responsibility for its inefficiency. Government could have mitigate the additional costs by allowing deductions in landing fee, take off fee, etc. for each minute delaying the landing of an airplane. But govt does not think that way, kabig lang ng kabig, shameless collection of endless taxes and fees.

Another thing. The queuing of airplanes and allowing faster landing and taking off can be done with more modern technology. In HK, I noticed that one runway can accommodate one landing every 30-40 seconds on average, then on the other runway, planes take off every 30-40 seconds too. At NAIA, I notice that queuing is every 45 seconds or more for each landing, another 45 seconds or more for each take off. Maybe there are suppliers of new air navigation technology, but they can’t sell unless they give bribe to NAIA bureaucrats?

Government taxes and fees in the airline sector, passed on to the passengers: Aviation security fee + Excise tax and VAT on fuel products and fuel surcharge + VAT on overall plane ticket. There are also implied taxes in the plane fare like common carriers tax (CCT), gross Philippine billing tax (GPBT), or a franchise tax, on top of corporate income tax, etc. Then there are landing fee, take off fee, baggage handling fee, etc. Airlines pass all of these to passengers.

Plus: travel tax for international passengers (essentially a hold up, highway robbery as there is zero service given to passengers), airport terminal fee (and the airport does not even give free drinking water/fountain, passengers have to pay extra to buy bottled water).

Some big airports abroad also divert plane landings but only during emergencies, like very bad weather, or some risks in landing like one airplane has nearly crash landed and left debris on the runway. But not for reason of "Sorry guys, 12 planes on queue ahead of you, you are #13, so feel free to waste fuel for several minutes, or land at the next non-busy airport."

-----------

See also: 
On airport terminal fees, April 05, 2010 
Plane fare fees, January 14, 2011
Airline oligopoly 1: Philippine AirLines, September 16, 2011 
Migration and Freedom 13: Travel Tax Robbery, December 06, 2011
On Airport Terminal Fee, December 09, 2011 
Tax Cut 12: Removing Taxes on Foreign Airlines, April 02, 2012

On Airport Terminal Fee

I fly at least 5x a year, 3x international (mainly to attend conferences and seminars) and 2x domestic (visit our folks in Negros Occ. and Iloilo). So I pay the government many taxes and fees related to flying, like travel tax for international trips, and airport terminal fee for either international or local trips.

This Christmas holiday season, many people will fly. Like me, they will pay lots of terminal fee in Philippine airports -- P750 for international trip and P200 for domestic trips. And the airport does not even have a single drinking water fountain, passengers have to buy bottled water from the shops.

If the government is more sensitive and less extortionist, it should provide more services to the passengers after it has collected so many taxes and fees from them. See my earlier discussion on travel tax, Migration and Freedom 13: Travel Tax Robbery, December 06, 2011.

I am reposting my two articles written six years ago.
------

(1) On Terminal Fees

November 15, 2005:

On top of many types of taxes such as personal and corporate income tax, value added tax (VAT), there are dozens of regulatory fees from various government agencies, national and local. Among these are business permit fee, inspection fee, permit fee, registration fee, processing fee, fines and penalties fee, franchising and licensing fee, clearance and certification fee, laboratory fee, land registration fee, notarial fee, filing fee, fire code fee, market and post-mortem fee, terminal fee, and so on.

If you travel domestically, whether by plane or boat or bus (via roll-on roll-off or RORO boats), you will pay a number of terminal fees in various ports of departure.

If you fly from Manila domestic airport, the previous P100 per passenger terminal fee has been hiked to P200 effective September this year. The amount is big as airlines already pay certain fees to the airports authority, shops inside the departure lounge pay high rental fees, and the services given to passengers -- a plain air-con departure lounge with tv and toilet -- are not really extra-ordinary. Me thinks the hike has something to do with servicing an ever-bloating government expenditures and public debt.

Migration and Freedom 13: Travel Tax Robbery

More than three years ago, I wrote these two articles:

(1) Travel Tax as Extortion

March 10, 2008

The travel tax of P1,620 (about US$37 at PhP44/$) per Filipino passenger for international flights is a bummer. I think this is plain extortion because there is no corresponding service for the Filipino passengers for paying this tax. Foreigners are exempted from paying this tax. They just have to pay the terminal fee of P750 per passenger.

Where does the tax collection go, the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) and the Department of Tourism (DOT)? For what, considering that these agencies get annual subsidies from our taxes as authorized by Congress? Besides, PTA does not give "free lodging" or any service for its hotels to average taxpayers. It does provide free lodging though to certain government officials and personnel, and those friends of the PTA and DOT top officials.

A friend said that this tax was invented sometime in the 70s when the government (under Mr. Marcos) thought that foreign travel was a luxury and foreign exchange drainer; hence, Filipinos traveling abroad should be penalized by such tax. These days, international mobility of people is a necessity, both at the macro and micro levels. Retention of said travel tax is thus, plain extortion. Try asking citizens of other countries, especially of developed countries, if their governments are charging them a “travel tax”, most likely the answer is No.