Proposed new runway to boost Cebu tourism

CEBU, Philippines - The proposed new runway and a third terminal at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) should prevent the country's second busiest airport from experiencing air traffic congestion in the future, which could trigger flight delays.

"At present, this is what’s happening in Manila and we do not want Cebu travelers and aviation industry players to suffer this," Joey Bondoc, research manager at Colliers International Philippines, told The FREEMAN.

Bondoc stressed the proposed airport expansion will definitely boost tourism’s contribution to Cebu’s economy.

"The completion of the expanded Mactan-Cebu International Airport terminal by mid-2018 will definitely attract more tourists and entice Asian and European airlines to mount more direct flights to Cebu," he said.

"This reinforces the need to have a new runway and a third terminal to adequately handle the projected meteoric rise in foreign arrivals over the next 15-20 years," the Colliers official further underscored.

He said the planned expansion of Mactan airport should benefit several sectors of Cebu’s economy given infrastructure projects’ multiplier effects.

"Expanded flights and terminals result in more passengers which should expand Cebu’s retail base. As a result, more Cebuanos will be employed by retail outlets, offering both food and non-food items," Bondoc explained.

"Enhanced infrastructure entices more travelers and this bodes well for the travel and tourism sector. Hotel occupancy rates are projected to rise and this encourages local and national developers to build more accommodation facilities in Cebu," he said.

He cited developers such as Rockwell, Ayala and Double Dragon which are building hotels in Cebu to cash in on the projected increase in tourist arrivals.

"More projects should be in the pipeline soon as GMR-Megawide releases more concrete details about its proposed projects," Bondoc noted.

"We see both local and national governments supporting GMR-Megawide’s unsolicited proposal especially as the Duterte administration has identified tourism as among the major engines of job generation in the countryside. The implementation of the new facilities should also lend support to the current administration’s decentralization push and help improve the Philippines’ travel and tourism competitiveness," the property consultancy official said.

GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp., the operator of MCIA, earlier submitted a P200-billion unsolicited proposal for the construction of a second runway and third airport terminal.

"Any infrastructure development for Cebu that will support and spur economic growth is definitely much welcome," Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Melanie Ng earlier said. "There has to be continued growth in our economy in order for the development to be viable."

The consortium of India's GMR Infrastructure Ltd. and Megawide Construction Corp. said the proposal, which involves a P208-billion investment, was submitted to the government last June 7.

Under the proposal, the expansion will be undertaken in three phases, with the first involving the rehabilitation of MCIA’s existing runway and taxiways; construction of an additional parallel taxiway to serve as emergency runway; and the development of additional rapid exit taxiways and runway holding positions, upon takeover of the airside facilities. The second phase will involve the construction of a second parallel and independent runway, while the third and final phase is the building of a third terminal for additional passengers.

“We have always believed in the potential of MCIA as the primary gateway to serve Visayas and Mindanao,” GMR-Megawide Director Louie Ferrer earlier said.

Based on the study by the company, passenger traffic in Cebu will reach about 28 million passenger per year in 2039, a projected traffic similar to major Asian airports such as Singapore, New Delhi and Kuala Lumpur, among others.

Once completed, the MCIA will emerge as the first Philippine airport with two parallel independent runways.

In 2013, GMR-Megawide was awarded the public-private partnership project to develop and operate MCIA, involving the construction of a second passenger terminal, targeted to open in June next year.

The consortium assumed airport's operations in November 2014.

The new passenger terminal building will bring MCIA’s capacity to 12.5 million per year from 4.5 million. In 2016, the MCIA handled 8.9 million passengers. (FREEMAN)