By Ding Cervantes (The Philippine Star) Updated December 23, 2009 12:00 AM
CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga , Philippines — The upgrading of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) here and the downgrading of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila is “inevitable,” Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) president and chief executive officer Victor Jose Luciano said yesterday.
In an interview, Luciano said the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has granted the government at least $5 million for a “transition study” that would make the DMIA the country’s premiere international airport.
Modern aircraft are now being built much larger and bigger terminals are needed for the growing number of international passengers. Physical limitations hamper the NAIA from absorbing these developments, Luciano said.
The JICA grant, he said, will cover infrastructure projects in neighboring Angeles City which also has to prepare for the conversion of DMIA into a premiere airport.
Luciano said the study is expected to be finished by the fourth quarter of 2010. “It will cover transport network needed between the NAIA and DMIA,” he said.
But he said the NAIA will not be phased out, although it will be downgraded from its current status as the country’s premiere international airport.
Luciano said the study will consider the DMIA’s expansion so that it would be able to process 80 million passengers per year. “This is much more than the 45 million capacity of the airport in Hong Kong and the 50 million capacity of the airport in Thailand,” he noted.
In the absence of a new world-class “terminal 2” which is still on the drawing board, the CIAC has bid out the upgrading of the current terminal to equip it initially with two foot bridges supposed to be operational by the first quarter next year. At present, passengers use mobile stairs to board or alight from their aircraft.
This, even as more international flights have started to operate at the DMIA, including initial flights to Kuwait and Bahrain. CIAC said at least three flights per week are being eyed between Clark and the Middle Eastern destinations.
Fedex, too, has plans to expand operations beyond the 1.6 hectares it now uses at the DMIA, Luciano said.
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