MCIAA to expand terminal this year

To address Cebu’s ever dynamic tourism industry that is growing rapidly at 14 percent in tourism arrivals in the first semester of 2008, the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) bared plans of expanding its existing terminal this year.

During yesterday’s 888 news forum at the Waterfront Hotel Lahug, MCIAA General Manager Danilo Augusto Francia said that with its current capacity of 4.5 million passengers, the airport’s terminal is still “good for three more years” before they decide to build a new terminal but ongoing expansion plan is being carried out to manage the forecasted growth.

 Francia said that for the last years, the airport has been accommodating only 44 international flights per week but now this number has grown to 74 flights while domestic flights increased to 291 per week at a fluctuating rate.

“Everything that the airport is doing or has done is tied up with the forecasted increase of numbers of passenger volume. We have consultants from different parts of the world who are doing these studies and we also have done our own. Based on our capacity the airport is not yet saturated and has not yet reached its full capacity,” he said.

He also added that to address the future swell of our tourism arrivals, MCIAA forecasts that the terminal will still be good until three or more years but they are already doing something about such as upgrading the terminal and doing space management to fully maximize the area.

“We are expanding our waiting lounge because the space is no longer in accordance with domestic and international aviation standard,” said Francia. —Rhia de Pablo