THE modernization of the Francisco Bangoy International Airport (FBIA) and further study on the five potential sites for another international airport in Davao Region should be hastened, an official of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Incorporated said.
Chamber president Arturo Milan made the call after reports about the completion of the new Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) Terminal 2 were circulated.
Milan said the modernization of MCIA was made possible because it is under the supervision of the MCIA Authority, which is independent of and separate from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).
He said a similar entity should be created for the FBIA to expedite its modernization.
"We can already do autonomous operation of the (FBIA) Davao International Airport and be not dependent on the CAAP to plan, to market, and allocate resources for the Davao International Airport. They already have a lot of matters to attend to for Metro Manila and other provincial airports," said Milan.
He shared that when Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade visited Davao City last year for the international conference, the secretary noted how the airport's state looked like “napabayaan” (neglected).
Milan said this is because during the secretary's visit, some of the air con of the airport is not working as well as the escalators.
For this year's Mindanao Business Conference in Tagum City, Milan said they will make sure to present a proposal to finally convert FBIA into an authority and to gain independence from CAAP already.
Milan refuted the argument that with FBIA's removal from CAAP it will affect and decrease the revenue of CAAP having only a few earning airports under it. He said CAAP gets its annual budget from the national government.
"That's where the role of the national government should come in - to subsidize non-profitable airports' operation. And as much as possible, focus on making them efficient and profitable. We should not penalize an airport that is efficient in making money that you deprive them of their growth and modernization," said Milan.
On airport's new and second location in the region.
Citing a result of the study conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Milan said the useful lifespan of the FBIA is still up to 30 to 40 years as only 30 percent of its runway capacity had been utilized. This means that the primary problems to address should be the expansion of the currently-congested terminals and the putting up of taxiways. This way, the holding capacity of the airport will be increased.
However, the government, he said, should not be complacent with the 30 to 40-year remaining years of the FBIA and must act now on the further study of the possible location of another airport in Davao Region.
As of last year, the Regional Development Council had already proposed five possible sites: Callawa, Samal, Panabo, Tagum, and Malita.
As transfer or creation of another airport will take time, Milan suggested that further study of these five sites should commence now especially that airport infrastructure will be needed to be up in the area.