Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Passenger arrivals increase; cargo volume drops
Domestic passenger arrivals and departures at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport for the first seven months of this year slightly increased to 1.26 million from 1.22 million during the same period last year, the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) traffic statistics show.
However, records show that from January to July this year, the MCIAA missed its target of 1.28 million domestic passenger arrivals and departures.
“The target for domestic passenger arrivals and departures wasn’t met because of lesser domestic flight frequencies,” said MCIAA general manager Adelberto Yap yesterday in an interview.
Domestic flights numbered 13,379, a decrease from last year’s 14,448.
However, the combined international passenger arrival and departure figures increased from 338,238 in 2004 to 381,493 this year, exceeding the target of 355,150.
MCIAA reported 2,540 international flights this year while it targeted only 2,501 international flights.
Donna Osal, sales executive of Singapore airline’s Silkair, said in a separate interview, that Silkair plans to add one more flight for its Cebu-Singapore route by November to cope with the increase in the number of passengers.
Silkair currently has a daily flight from Cebu to Singapore, she said.
Meanwhile, the volume of domestic cargoes that arrived at the Mactan airport reached only 8,943 tons, a nine percent decrease from last year’s 9,863 tons.
This is 11 percent short of the 10,060-ton target.
The volume of domestic cargoes that left the airport also dropped to 10,178 tons from last year’s 10,807 tons. This is eight percent less than the 11,022-ton target.
For international cargoes, the volume that arrived at the airport totaled 5,537 tons.
Cargo airlines
It decreased by nine percent from last year’s total volume of 6,052 tons; while the volume of international cargoes that left Mactan reached 4,267 tons, decreasing by 13 percent from last year’s 4,893 tons.
Yap said the decrease in the volume of cargoes to and from Cebu is due to the lack of cargo airlines to accommodate the demand.
“Cargoes for MEZ (Mactan Economic Zone) locators, for example, now go to shipping lines because we lack cargo airlines,” he said.
Maritime shipping would mean cheaper cost of delivery of goods but also a longer time of shipment, he added.
Yap said Trans Global Airways Corp., a cargo airline company that will move goods in Southeast Asia, is expected to operate in Cebu by the end of this month. (ALC)
(August 23, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
