Good-bye, Manila, hello, Taipei

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Good-bye, Manila, hello, Taipei

By Alejandro del Rosario

More than the end of an era, the last flight of KLM airlines from Manila to Amsterdam is a sad reflection on the state of aviation in this country.

Manila international airport is known as the worst and most hated airport in the world; the US aviation authorities have not taken NAIA off the Category 2 list that classifies it as unsafe in terms of security and inadequate communications and navigations equipment.

I don’t know why the country’s gateway had to be renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport when it’s hard to pronounce for foreign visitors. Why do we need to perpetuate a dark chapter in our history? When foreign visitors ask who’s “what’s his name?” We have to say, “Oh, him, he was a former senator who was murdered on the airport tarmac by our soldiers.” Welcome, it’s more fun in the Philippines!

KLM was the last European airline to fly to Manila and its Schiphol airport hub in Amsterdam. It followed the exit of other European airlines—Air France, Alitalia, British Airways, Swissair, Lufthansa and if memory serves me right even the Spanish airline Iberia used to fly to Manila. I flew on Swiss Air’s and Lufthansa’s last flights to Manila and even then I saw the handwriting on the sky.

Last Sunday KLM (Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij which means Royal Dutch Airlines in English) flew its last flight from Manila. It now flies to and from Taipei.

The end of KLM flights has a deep nostalgic meaning for me. My romance and fascination with international air travel started on KLM. Little did I know that KLM would figure in my life when a peripatetic fortune teller told me that the lines on the palm of my hand showed I would have many travels ahead of me.

Well, less than two weeks later, I was informed I had been selected for a World Press Institute in St. Paul-Minneapolis in Minnesota for a year of studies. But why KLM and not a direct flight to the US? A friend who then headed the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) gave me a KLM plane ticket and said to go by way of Europe and then take the connecting trans-Atlantic flight. Since I have never been to Europe or the USA I took him up on it, spending three days in Holland, visiting the Rijsk Museum to see the works of Vincent Van Gogh.

To make a long story short lest this begins to sound like a travelogue, I had more flights on KLM when I was posted as Philippine ambassador to Hungary and Poland. A short one hour and half from Budapest or Warsaw would get me to Amsterdam for the 13 and a half or 14 –hour non-stop flight to Manila , a distance of 6,489,7 miles depending on the headwind and tailwind factor.

With KLM gone , it will take longer for Filipino travelers to fly to and from Europe This is especially true for our Filipino Overseas Workers who now have to connect via Taipei or Hong Kong on another airline.

The stopover in the sprawling Schipol was an enriching experience as I wait for the flight to Manila together with other Filipinos who were mostly immigrant workers in Europe . We would swap stories about how lonely life can be for Filipinos abroad especially during the deep winter months in Europe. There were also Filipino workers from the Middle East who connected via Amsterdam instead of Dubai or Doha.

KLM, the world’s oldest airline, founded 92 years ago on October 7,1919 and started operations on May 17, 1920 . It is also the world’s biggest airline after it merged with Air France in May 2004 .

The Dutch airline tried as long as it could to keep the Manila flights. Onerous carrier and cargo taxes, however, imposed by the Philippine government made its operations here unprofitable. These are taxes not imposed on other airlines by other countries. Years of negotiating with Manila went for naught.

Communications and Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas made a half-hearted effort to convince KLM into keeping the Manila flights. But without the necessary incentives to offer the airline, Roxas failed.

So, it’s good-bye Manila, hello Taipei !