Philippine Aviation Industry Recovery

[Mathue]

Hi, how long do you think the Philippine Aviation Industry will be able to return back to pre-pandemic levels? International projection says that the Aviation sector as a whole will take 3-5 years to recover. With this, do you think the PH will be slower or faster than the global projection? Thanks!

[Arianespace]

Good question.

As it stands as of August 31, 2020, there were 6.6 million passengers that entered the country from January to August. Majority of that numbers came from January to March 15 alone. The rest about 190,000 are returning Filipinos, their spouses and family members that came in the country after March 15, repatriated or otherwise.  About 1.5 million of the 6 million were foreign tourists.

Labor Secretary Bello said about 170,000 OFWs were repatriated at end August 2020. That story is reported here.

The Philippine tourism market are still close to foreigners up to this date. What is fueling airline traffic at NAIA are repatriated OFWs returning and also those heading back for work. As late as August 31, that figure does not even reach 30,000 per month.  

Entry restrictions are stated here.

The news that confirms foreign tourists figure slump reported last month is here and  here. I'm stating the Congressional report if i heard it correctly.

If that trajectory continues, by December we could be seeing only about 7 million passengers.