THE GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC), which operates the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA), continues to contribute to job generation in the region.

Ravishankar Saravu, chief commercial advisor of GMCAC, said that as the airport grows, so do the jobs that are generated.

“The number of people working in the airport will increase as the number of flights increases to accommodate traffic growth,” Saravu said during the 2019 Transformation Summit on Monday, May 6.

He said the overall airport ecosystem employs 3,000 employees, 300 of whom are directly employed by GMCAC.

During the construction of Terminal 2 (T2), Saravu said 3,000 people were employed.

When T2 was completed, it created 300 direct jobs in retail and food and beverage businesses within the airport.

T2 serves international passengers as they pass through the MCIA.

The airport also uses products from the region, and functions as a marketing tool for homegrown brands.

“Materials were procured from local suppliers during construction. Destination shops at the airport source their products from local artisans,” he said in his presentation.

Because of the traffic growth, there has been a huge impact on the local tourism industry, as almost all hotels near the airport operate at a 90 percent occupancy rate, Saravu said. (JOB)