With NAIA past peak capacity, gov’t must announce when new airport will be built

August 29, 2018

The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is near if not past peak capacity that government has no choice but build a new main gateway to the country, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said in a statement Wednesday.

Recto said NAIA’s passenger volume had doubled from 20.4 million in 2007 to 42 million last year.

“If it is increasing its passenger volume by 2.5 million passengers a year, which was the annual increase growth from 2016 to 2017, then there’s no way that the present facilities can handle 10 million additional passengers by 2022, “ Recto said.

“If the projected growth is 3 million annually, then it will be impossible for its present facilities to accommodate 15 million more passengers in five years,” Recto said.

“It is no longer a question of if but when,” Recto said.

Rehabilitating NAIA without adding a runway will only allow it to increase its passenger handling ceiling to 65 million a year, Recto said.

“The maximum 65 million may be achieved in two presidential terms. At the rate air travel is growing, we need one more,” he said.

Recto said government must decide whether NAIA's decongestion will be through the expansion of Clark airport in Pampanga, the building of San Miguel Corp.’s aeropolis in Bulacan, or the proposal tendered by the “Taipans’ consortium” to expand NAIA.

“I understand that this is not a winner-take-all proposal, but two airports can coexist under the principle of complementarity. We should discuss when is the takeoff time, or to use a flight terminology, when is the ETA – Estimated Time of Arrival, meaning completion, of Bulacan, Clark and NAIA,” Recto said. DMS