The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) will release next month rules that will penalize local airlines for chronic flight delays and cancellations.
Carmelo Arcilla, CAB executive director, said the regulator is refining the guidelines that will impose monetary penalties and recall flight allocations of airlines for persistent flight delays over one season or within three months.
“There’s a pecuniary penalty …depending on the scale,” said Arcilla, who attributed persistent delays to poor planning.
CAB through Resolution No. 26 earlier required all domestic carriers to submit a monthly on-time performance (OTP) report which will be the basis of the penalties once the final rules become effective.
The OTP is a matrix used to measure the operational efficiency or punctuality of an airline on time of arrival and departure.
Airlines are also required to include reasons for the decline in the monthly OTP if the airline’s average OTP for a given month dips down to below 50 percent. Allowable causes of delays are extreme weather conditions and airport closure due to irregular airport incidents.
Data from Department of Transportation as of Oct. 11, 2019, showed airlines with the lowest OTP at NAIA for domestic operations are Skyjet Airlines with 13 percent and AirAsia, 61 percent.
For international flights, Thai Airways and Eva Air have the lowest at 25 percent and 33 percent, respectively.
At Mactan-Cebu International Airport, AirAsia has lowest OTP for domestic operation and Silk Air and Jeju Air for international operation.
At Clark International, AirAsia and Cebu Pacific have lowest OTP at 69 and 79 percent, respectively. For international flights, China Eastern Airlines and Scoot recorded the lowest OTP.
For Davao International Airport domestic operations, CebGo and AirAsia have lowest OTP at zero and 46 percent, respectively, while for international flights, Silk Air posted zero OTP.
The Passenger Bill of Rights mandates airlines to give compensation to passengers in case of flight cancellations and delays.
