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Thursday, December 04, 2003
Qatar Airways issue to cost Marriott P10M
By Jessica B. Natad
THE upcoming official hotel of Qatar Airways in Cebu is asking the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) for an explanation on the withdrawal of the fifth freedom traffic rights it previously granted to Qatar Airways.
Cebu City Marriott Hotel (CCMH) general manager Karl Hudson issued this statement yesterday after the Cebu Visitors and Convention Bureau urged the Cebuano community to help push for CAB to honor its previous commitment to Qatar Airways.
He said the possible suspension of Qatar Airways’ plans to mount direct Doha to Cebu flights via Singapore will translate to a loss of 4,000 room nights per year for the Ayala-led hotel to the tune of P10 million in room, food and beverage consumption expenses.
“We have been working with them (Qatar) for the past five months. The contract to make the hotel its official hotel in Cebu is now in its final stage,” Hudson told a press conference.
In a long distance telephone interview, Qatar Airways area manager Mario Hachem told Sun.Star the airline has not made its final decision yet.
“We are still hoping that we can clear things up with CAB before we make the final decision,” he said.
Hachem said Qatar is pushing through with its maiden Doha-Cebu flight on Dec. 12.
But more than the hotel’s estimated losses, CCMH’s Hudson said losing Qatar Airways, because of CAB’s “mistake,” will have a great impact on Cebu’s tourism industry in general.
CAB approved last October Qatar Airways’s application for its fifth freedom traffic rights, which allow the airline to drop by and pick up passengers in Singapore, before flying to Cebu, and vice versa. Three weeks later, CAB executive director Tomas Mañalac retracted CAB’s approval in an executive order, saying CAB had “made a mistake.”
Aside from affecting Cebu’s tourism industry, Hudson said CAB’s wavering will send a wrong signal to foreign direct investors, whom the country has been trying to attract.
In a separate interview, Department of Tourism (DOT) 7 Regional Director Patria Aurora Roa said the CAB probably had its own reasons for canceling Qatar Airways’ fifth freedom traffic rights.
“From the side of tourism, (an) open skies (policy) is always good. But for the country in general, open skies should not be absolute because we have to balance everything,” she said.
(December 4, 2003 issue)
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