A brokers group asked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to break what it called cargo monopoly at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NIA) and open a gate with ramp access that would allow other warehouses to transport cargo directly to and from the aircraft.
Two gates – one in 2020 and another earlier this year – were shut down by court injunctions based on complaints, first from one claiming ownership of MIAA property and the other from a group that alleged the gate would injure the rights of passengers and posted a bond of P2 million.
This leaves one operator with ramp access. “If this were a horse race, all the gates would be locked except for one. And the bettors, in this case the 37 foreign airlines, have no choice but to sign up with the lone runner,” the Philippine Chamber of Customs Brokers said in an open letter to the President.
The brokers group said the required gate is crucial to making NAIA a regional and transshipment hub especially given its strategic location.
It said right now, shippers use other countries because the lone operator takes 12 hours to sort out one container taken from an aircraft, keeping the queue of trucks on Sucat outside NAIA delivering or picking up cargo to worsen traffic in the area.
The group said the New NAIA Infra Corp., the private company rehabilitating NAIA, implemented several measures to improve passenger experience in the short time it took over the airport.
It said, however, that cargo deserves equal attention. Passenger services address tourism, while cargo will improve trade, and both will lead to economic growth, investments and innovation, and job generation, the group said.
Christmas cargo flow is peaking and action is needed soon, it said.
