All-Asia Resources and Reclamation Corp., a consortium led by tycoon Henry Sy and the Tieng family, proposed to build three runways in Cavite province, including one at the Danilo Atienza Airport in Sangley Point.
AARC said that under the proposal, it would keep the present Danilo Atienza airport in Sangley as a third runway to handle private jets and smaller low-cost carriers to complement the initial two long independent runways that its international gateway airport would have.
“We have submitted an unsolicited proposal to rehabilitate Danilo Atienza and finish it in one year. If the government accepts this, we can absorb all general aviation from Naia [Ninoy Aquino International Airport] and some low-cost carriers so Naia can handle more commercial flights,” said ARRC vice chairman Edmundo Lim.
Lim said the government would not have to spend a single centavo on the Danilo Atienza and the international gateway airport projects.
“We have long been ready with our foreign partners to do both. Hopefully, the government decides soon enough even for the Danilo Atienza project only because it will make Naia more efficient,” he said.
Small private jets, sometimes with only a passenger or just the pilot, and those that transport seafood, use the same space and time to land and take off at Naia in Parañaque City, which is a reason for delays in commercial flights that carry hundreds, he said.
Lim also said Luzon should have a new gateway airport aside from Clark to handle both northern and southern markets.
“We need two international airports. The millions of passengers from Pasay, Paranaque, Cavite and Batangas, for example, should not travel north via the streets of Metro Manila to fly. The same goes for those from Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac and Pangasinan who do not have travel to Manila,” he said.
Lim said said this would help ease the traffic problem in Metro Manila as both airports are strategically located.
ARRC said it could finish the gateway airport project within five years from receipt of a notice to proceed from the government.
Complementing the airport proposal are two other components to be located on a 2,500-hectare property it proposes to reclaim just off the Danilo Atienza airport, including a manufacturing hub and a seaport.
“This would make it convenient for manufacturers to bring in their raw materials and ship out their finished products because the seaport and airport are just next door,” he said.
