The ASEAN way

ASEAN’s softly, softly approach to liberalisation

It’s shaping up to be the open skies you have when you’re not really having open skies. Just a couple of months away from what is supposed to be the official onset of fully liberalised airways across the 10-member ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) group in 2015, not everyone has signed up to all aspects of the deal.

After holding out for months, Indonesia has finally signed along the dotted line despite intense lobbying from its home airlines to get Jakarta excluded from any agreement, mainly because the country’s main airport is so congested it won’t be able to handle a new flood of capacity. But the Philippines is still refusing to ratify, again citing a lack of infrastructure at Manila. It says it will sign if open skies applies only to secondary cities and not to the capital.