Flight Restriction to Caticlan, Kalibo Lifted

17 July 2019

The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) has lifted the moratorium on all charter flights to Kalibo and Caticlan after major environmental repair works off Boracay Island was completed by the government.

Last year, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has determined that the resort island of Boracay can only accommodate 19,215 tourists a day, at any given time, or 6,405 arrivals a day based on an average three-day stay.

CAB earlier passed a resolution restricting Caticlan and Kalibo flights, mostly affecting Chinese passengers, due to breaches of tourism arrival figures beyond 7,000 visitors on average per day recorded in April and May, or beyond Boracay island’s daily carrying capacity.

This was the reason it suspended new and additional charter flights to Kalibo and Boracay, and ordered scheduled carriers to review their flight numbers for a possible scaleback.

CAB Executive Director Carmelo L. Arcilla however clarified that only charter flights are lifted as restrictions to additional scheduled flights of airlines are still in place.

“airlines are restricted from mounting additional flights.” says Arcilla.

Airlines are also prohibited from using Airbus A321 and Boeing B737-900 planes to both airports, except legacy carriers that seat their planes less than 200 passengers.

“All air operators to these two cities will not be allowed to use aircraft with more than a 200-seat capacity.” Arcilla adds.

CAB has instructed interested carriers intending to mount new and additional charter flights to Kalibo and Caticlan airports to file their charter applications “at least 30 days before the intended date of operation, and the scheduling of operations on less congested days of the week as determined by the CAB.”

The CAB resolution lifting the moratorium, effective immediately, was signed after a special board meeting on July 15, 2019.

According to Arcilla June arrivals started to drop onward to October before rising again for the holiday season. July to September is considered lean season on the island mainly because of the weather.

“That is the trend in past years. We determined that there is no reason to maintain the current flight restrictions considering that its lean season,” CAB said.

According to data from the Malay Tourism Office cited by the CAB, tourists in Boracay dropped to 189,444 in June 2019, from 222,330 in April and 221,138 in May. This translates to an average of 6,314 daily arrivals.

“The annual trend in 2015-2017 suggests that this number may still go down, bottoming out in September, consistently the month with least visitor numbers. This year, that can mean only around 4,200 tourists per day, irrespective of the mode of transportation taken. The tourist arrivals then recover until December, but only top off at 76 percent of the April average.” explains Arcilla.

CAB disclosed that next year almost all of Boracay rehabilitation projects should most likely be completed paving the way for the agency to ease the moratorium further. But Arcilla cautioned that still depends upon the recommendation of the DENR and the DOT to increase daily arrivals beyond 7,000 visitors per day.