Philippine Economy: Airline Liberalization Yields Greatest Number of Cheap Travel

Well this development is certainly a refreshing plus for the Philippine economy. 

The domestic airline industry’s liberalization has led to a boom in domestic tourism and has earned the Philippines plaudit as having the greatest number of cheapest air fare in the world.

From the Economist, (bold mine)

LOW-COST airlines like Ryanair and Southwest Airlines have swollen to formidable size in recent years by offering a very different approach to that of more traditional full-service airlines. With their single-class seating, range of ancillary charges and pared-down approach to all things aviation-related, these budget carriers have become a familiar, often bemoaned, feature of holidays and business trips around the globe. In British airports, for example, more than 50% of all passengers last year squeezed into seats on low-cost carriers. But Britain only comes seventh on a list ranking countries on that criterion. Figures released by Amadeus, a global travel distribution system, show that the Philippine aviation market has the greatest proportion of low-cost flyers. In that country of over 7,000 islands, 65% of all passengers used budget carriers last year. Cebu Pacific, the nation’s biggest low-cost operator, boasted over 46% of the domestic market. Among the smallest low-cost markets are Russia, Japan and China, where budget carriers accounted for just 5%, 4% and 1% of departures respectively. In China, the government keeps strict control of the airline industry and shields the three main state-controlled carriers (Air China, China Southern and China Eastern) from low-priced competition. Shanghai-based Spring Airlines, which launched in 2005, is the country's only low-cost carrier of any size.

Since the Philippine government has liberalized the airline industry in 1995, the entry of new players has prompted competition to drastically lower airfares which translated to a natural boom in the domestic tourism industry. Lowering the cost of airfare has allowed a greater number of people, across income and wealth strata, to enjoy the benefits of traveling.

Here is the current list of domestic commercial airlines from Wikipedia.org

Domestic tourism plays a big role in the tourism industry where spending share of local tourists accounts for 59.1% of the industry in 2011 as I earlier pointed out here.

Rather than blowing bubbles, real structural reforms on the local economy should be modeled after the Philippine airline industry.

As post-war free market reformist, former Chancellor of Germany Ludwig Erhard, popularly known to have ushered in "Wirtschaftswunder" or German for "economic miracle", wrote in his classic book Prosperity through Competition, page 1

Competition is the most promising means to achieve and to secure prosperity. It alone enables people in their role of consumer to gain from economic progress. It ensures that all advantages which result from higher productivity would eventually be enjoyed.

Indeed.