Apologies to our readers. The contents of the article last week in the online edition was initially that of my neighbor, Rep. Dan Suarez. It was later corrected.
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The Department of Transportation has just greenlighted a government-to-government project that would develop the Sangley point airport into another International Airport. This new project is in partnership with the Cavite provincial government. If this pushes through, it would become the fourth international airport within commuting distance from the National Capital Region. Fifth, actually, if talk of reactivating the Subic Airport materializes.
The DOTr is getting into high gear to expand airport capacity and build new ones. The other airport projects that have already been approved is the mammoth P750 billion airport that San Miguel Corporation will build on a 2,500-hectare property in Bulacan, Bulacan. When fully developed, it will boast of four runways, a freeway that will connect it to the metropolitan area and will be able to accommodate 100 million passengers in one year. It can easily handle the 20-million tourists projected to visit the country by 2030.
The other project is the expansion of the current Ninoy Aquino International Airport to double its current capacity of 42 million passenger that used the airport last year. The figure of 42 million international passengers in itself is way over the designed capacity of the airport. With the projected expansion of the Clark International Airport, we will be looking at a total passenger capacity in excess of more than 185 million yearly passenger capacity by 2030 onwards with the three airports alone.
Whether of course, we will attain that projected passenger capacity is another matter.
The Sangley gateway in Cavite will add millions more. Since these developments will be mostly funded by private corporations like the Bulacan airport of San Miguel and the Naia expansion project led by a private consortiums like the Aboitiz group and others, the resulting competition should benefit the flying public because of more efficient services by 2030 onwards when our population approaches 120 million. Whether we will be needing three, four or even five international airports within 100 kilometers from each other will depend on the calculations of the DOTr on whether we will be reaching such passenger demand by that time. Maybe what the planners are thinking is that it is better to be prepared than be caught unprepared. We can look at the way other world cities developed their airports. Paris for instance has two, CDG and Orly airports. New York has also two, the JFK and La Guardia. We will have at least three if the Bulacan airport comes into stream.
If we look at the current traffic figures of Naia last year, the airport was used by 42.022-million international passengers, an increase of 5.96 percent from the previous. It had 108,995 international flights, also an increase of 19.60 percent and total domestic flights of 149,317 which was in fact a decrease of 3.76 percent. A total 460,135 metric tons of cargo was also carried by the airport.
The Naia is undoubtedly performing way beyond its designed capacity and definitely needs upgrading. The three members of the consortium that bid about P150 billion to expand Naia with an additional runway has promised that the upgrading, which will be done in phases, will not disrupt current airport operations. The duration of the period of the lease contract was in fact shortened.
What is clear is that there are private investors that are willing to put their money where their mouth is in order to help the country achieve its economic projections. I have thought whether the three international Airports, Clark, The San Miguel Bulacan Airport which up to now has yet to be named and Naia can achieve the projected figure of 185-million passenger traffic without even counting the fourth airport in Sangley. But as they say, only the bold and visionary investors like Ramon Ang and the others will end up inheriting the “earth” if their visions can be achieved.
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If all these projects come to fruition, our international airports would have come a long way from its humble beginnings when the first airport was opened in 1935 in Grace Park, Caloocan. It was used by the Philippines Airlines which was originally called the Philippines Aerial Taxi Company. Two years later in 1937, The Manila International Air Terminal which was more popularly known then as Neilson Airport was opened in Makati. The runway of that airport are now the Ayala Avenue and Paseo de Roxas roads.
It was in 1948 after Philippine independence that the airport was moved to its current site beside Villamor Airbase which was known then as Nichols Field. The principal reason for the transfer was due to the need for a wider space to cater to the growing air passenger traffic. I remember the old Nielson Towers which was still there in the late 1970s being operated as a restaurant. When working as military aid to former President Fidel Ramos was then Chief of Constabulary, I remember him and dinner at Nielson Tower, where he related the story that when he was accepted as a cadet for West Point, it was in that airport where he embarked on his long trip to New York with so many stopovers along the way.
It was bit of a nostalgic trip for him which I also enjoyed. The 1948 airport was used until 1981 when Naia 1 was inaugurated in 1982. At that time, it was one of the most modern international airports in the Asean region. Many of our neighbors have built better airports and have overtaken us. We are left to playing catch up with them.