IATA urges Phl to build new airport

MANILA, Philippines - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is urging the Philippines to prioritize the construction of a new international airport and to address the safety concerns of the US and the European Union as the country’s aviation industry has been ignored by the previous administrations.

IATA director general and chief executive officer Tony Tyler told reporters in a media roundtable that there is a need to put up a new international airport since building a secondary airport or increasingly splitting the traffic with Clark International Airporty would not be sufficient to put the Philippines on the same playing field as its neighbors

Tyler said the Ninoy Aquino International Airport is operating near capacity and the Philippines badly needs a better airport infrastructure as new airports were opened in Hong Kong, Nagoya, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Bangkok in the last 15 years.

“The airport is operating near capacity. And there does not seem to be any possibility for significant expansion at the current site. Some say that Clark has potential to provide capacity relief. But it is 100 kilometers away with very inconvenient surface transport links,” he lamented.

He warned that failure to make appropriate investments in air transport is leaving the Philippines behind in the Asian economic growth story.

The latest World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index ranks the Philippines 112 out of 139 countries for the quality of its air transport infrastructure overtaking only Nepal, Bangladesh and Mongolia.

National flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL), jointly owned by taipan Lucio Tan and diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp., is looking up at putting up a new international airport that would have four runways in a 2,000-hectare property.

Tyler said the Philippines is missing out on great economic opportunities that could be facilitated by air transport that has been neglected by the previous administrations.

“This is because the industry has been neglected by successive governments. And the result is that aviation in the Philippines has a bad reputation for safety, inadequate airport capacity and high taxation,” he stressed.