Mactan-Cebu airport operator sees gateway as hub outside Luzon

MANILA, Philippines — GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC), the private operator managing the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA), intends to make the gateway the country’s hub for flights outside Luzon with the completion of the P1.8 billion renovation.

“MCIA’s domestic flight frequencies have increased by 82 percent, and this is just in our first five years. Our medium-term objective is to establish Cebu as the hub for flights to the Philippines, particularly to Visayas and Mindanao, by maximizing our strategic central location and infrastructure,” GMCAC president Louie Ferrer said.

GMCAC has completed the full renovation works of MCIA Terminal 1.

With the completion of renovation of Terminal 1, Ferrer said GMCAC could now focus on opening more domestic flights via Cebu.

Terminal 1 was originally built for just 4.5 million passengers per annum (mppa), but was already handling 6.9 mppa in 2014.

GMCAC took over the landside operations of MCIA on Nov. 1, 2014 and had implemented several initial improvements to address urgent issues such as congestion and operational efficiency.

With the completion of renovation, the domestic terminal can now handle 11.7 mppa with an increased floor area of about 45,000 square meters.

“Since November 2014, we have served more than 50 million passengers and doubled the annual passenger traffic.

MCIA has seen significant improvements within this period, and it is thanks to the hard work and collaboration of the MCIA and Cebuano communities that we now have an airport that we are proud to call our own,” Ferrer said.

GMCAC said Terminal 1 now features an expanded pre-departure area that can accommodate more vehicle drop-offs. The pre-departure area is also now connected to the new Airport Village, a commercial area that houses a mix of food, beverage and retail stores.

Four automatic tray retrieval system machines located at the final security check area were also put in place as part of efforts to increase efficiency at the terminal.

GMCAC, a joint venture company of Filipino engineering and infrastructure company Megawide Construction Corp. and Indian infrastructure developer GMR,  took over development of all landside facilities of the MCIA under a 25-year public-private partnership concession agreement with the government.