Last month I wrote about a budding online initiative to bring back the original name of our premier airport, Manila International Airport. Apart from the historical issues involved, I stressed that rebranding is a time-honored way of restoring the franchise of a product that’s gone bad.
Nonetheless, fixing the name is obviously only part of the answer. The bigger job of course is to fix the product itself. If that isn’t done, too, you end up with the double problem of bad product AND untruthful advertising.
And Naia’s problems are only part of a larger crisis that grips the country’s entire airport system, according to a policy brief drafted by UA&P economist Cherry Lynn Rodolfo for the folks at USAID, who thankfully have not yet heeded the President’s earlier invitation for them to “go to hell.”
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Philippine air transport generated nearly P270 billion of real gross value-added in 2015, and contributes about 3.5 percent of GDP directly and through indirect, induced, or catalytic effects. The industry supports 1.2 million jobs and carries most of our high-value merchandise trade, not to mention higher-value tourists and OFWs.
But despite our friendly skies, the outlook isn’t so friendly on the ground, where the planes must depart and arrive. Our air transport infrastructure ranks near the bottom of Asean, just ahead only of Cambodia. Not surprisingly, the biggest problems are found in Naia. Among them:
Runway congestion due to configuration—The airport has two intersecting runways, the longer Runway 06/24 (3.7 km long) and the shorter Runway 13/31 (2 km long). International aircraft are only allowed to use 06/24, and until recently 13/31 was limited only to aircraft departures. There are also not enough rapid exit taxiways servicing the longer runway.
Runway congestion due to utilization—This used to run as high as 60 aircraft movements per hour, versus the average and current maximum of 40. There are several reasons for high utilization:
The airport is used by every type of aircraft, including general aircraft whose runway times are longer because of smaller engine displacement. As a result, there are relatively fewer passengers per aircraft movement, a sign of inefficiency.
Domestic flights are concentrated from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., mainly because most provincial airports are not night-rated and lack instrument landing systems to handle night flights.
Other utilization issues include lack of radar, non-standard air traffic control procedures, poor en-route communications with aircraft, and poor ground conditions at the airport.
The terminals are also congested, handling up to 20 percent above their combined design capacity of 30 million passengers in 2015. This may have eased somewhat today after a major redesign of Terminal 1 interiors to widen passenger movement areas.
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So what should be done to make the ground as friendly as the skies for Philippine air transport? The USAID paper has voluminous suggestions, from which we can highlight the major ones:
In air traffic management: Maintain the current cap of 40 aircraft movements per hour. Transfer excess time slots to other airports while penalizing the practice of hoarding slots. Transfer general aviation aircraft to Sangley and/or Clark. Fully implement the new Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Air Traffic Management system.
In airside operations: Install ground movement aids to ICAO standards. Construct those rapid exit taxiways. Update airfield and airport charts. Provide interconnections among the terminals—something you don’t have to be a transport economist to appreciate.
In the medium term, implement the privatization of Naia, which was launched last September as the very first airport IPP project of the new President.
Implement a dual airport set-up for Mega Manila and develop Clark into the second premier gateway. This was recommended way back by both JICA and IATA. It calls for the joint development of both NAIA and Clark, while the government decides whether or not to build a long-term replacement for NAIA nearby.
The catchment area of Clark comprises northern Metro Manila, central and northern Luzon, where one-third of all OFWs reside. Obviously the need comes up for a high-speed rail connection from Clark to Manila, as well as completion of the NLEX/SLEX connector to facilitate passenger movement to points farther south.
Both airports should serve both domestic and international flights, thereby enhancing Manila’s prospects to become a future regional hub.
Accelerate development of secondary international gateways as well as improving provincial airports. By allowing direct flights to the country’s best-known tourist attractions, tourism is promoted while NAIA is decongested. Improvement means night landing facilities, performance-based instrument flight procedures, and longer and wider runways.
After languishing under PNoy, the new administration has revived PPP projects to privatize the operations, maintenance and expansion of five important secondary airports: Bacolod/Silay, Iloilo, Davao, Laguindingan, and the New Bohol airport.
The whole country wins with projects like these. It should be noted though that many of them are supposed to be well underway the first quarter of this year. The whole country should be watching closely to make sure that the new Secretary of Transportation, Art Tugade, measures up to what he’s been promising and what the country expects from him.
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Happy Valentine’s Day to our readers! As you enjoy your transports into delight tonight, just make sure you land with your feet on the ground.
Readers can write me at [email protected].