Subic Airport's Target Market

Comment from a reader on Subic Airport's marketing Activities

In an address to the membership of the Subic Bay Chamber of Commerce on September 29, the General Manager of the Airport said that the first thing airlines asked upon being approached was what was Subic Bay International Airport's "market." In the ensuing address, the General Manager stated the Airport's conclusions with respect to that question, and announced that their conclusions had led them to seek the initiation of flights between Subic and Cebu, starting in November 2009. No mention was made of SBIA's most salient market--sex tourists--and scant mention was made of the source of those tourists--Guam.

A number of new hotels are rising in the entertainment district in Angeles City. The Airport should suggest to its resident carrier, Pearl of the Pacific Airlines, that it sell blocks of seats on Guam-Subic flights to one or more of those hotels--enough seats to pay for the operating costs of the flights.

It would take only a small advertisement in the local Guam newspaper to fill those seats every week. Flights should leave Subic on Friday afternoon and return from Guam on Friday nights, and go again to Guam on Sunday afternoon and return on Sunday nights. A bus could shuttle the sex tourists to their hotel in Angeles City as soon as they emerge from Customs. The remaining seats on the flights could be filled by gamblers, medical tourists, golfers, divers, fishermen, and eco-tourists.

This is a more likely proposition than flights to Cebu.

[The Subic Bulletin] SBIA is stabbing in the dark and hoping that they get lucky because they clearly don't have a clue what their target market is or how to approach it.