Saturday, September 06, 2008 More int’l passengers
INTERNATIONAL passenger arrivals at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) have increased by as much as 20 percent since the start of the year.
The MCIA Authority (MCIAA) is optimistic that the arrival numbers will continue to increase, especially with the bilateral agreements established by the Philippine Government with those of other countries.
MCIAA Chief Executive Officer and General Manager Danilo Augusto Francia disclosed that with the conclusion of the Philippine-Iran bilateral talks, airline companies in Iran expressed interest to include Manila in their route before the end of the year and Cebu in the beginning of 2009.
He said that if MCIAA continues to be transparent and honest in its transactions with others, more people and companies will come and fly in through the international airport.
“We used to have only 44 international flights a week. Now, we have 70 flights. It came naturally from our honest dealings with others,” he said.
In January this year, MCIAA reported international passenger arrivals of 44,706, a 26-percent increase over 35,504 in same period last year.
Overall increase
Except for April when MCIAA experienced a seven percent decrease, the rest of the months until June show international arrivals rising from one percent to 18 percent.
Overall, the first half of the year shows a combined growth of eight percent in international passenger arrivals, with a total of 255,732 compared to 235,834 in the first half of 2007.
Domestic passenger arrivals also grew eight percent from January to June with 718,432 passengers compared to 665,922 passengers for the same period last year.
Francia is optimistic that the figures will increase further with the purchase of more aircraft by Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines (PAL) to serve additional routes.
“Starting Oct. 1, Cebu-Clark route, which used to be serviced three times a week only, will be serviced daily. Such (moves) make domestic travel more efficient,” he said.
Domestic passenger arrivals were highest in February with 18 percent growth, followed by January and March, which both posted a 12-percent increase.
To complement this growth, Francia said MCIAA upgraded some facilities at the airport: the holding lounges were fitted with LCD monitors, installation of CCTV cameras that cost P9 million and the purchase of a P3.2-million trauma van or a traveling emergency ward that can accommodate three patients at the same time.
MCIAA has a P20-million budget for CCTVs. The first set of surveillance cameras placed strategically in the terminal will help monitor requests for additional taxicabs and trace lost baggage.
Lounges 7 and 8, which were not utilized before, will be opened to accommodate the bulk of passengers that is expected to
use the airport with the establishment of additional flights for the respective hubs of PAL and Cebu Pacific.
Yesterday, the Land Bank of the Philippines turned over 76 new units of baggage push carts to the airport in an effort to improve the mobility of customers. (NRC)
