US official: No ‘secret’ inspection of Terminal 3

The US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has not conducted any "secret" inspection of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s new passenger Terminal 3, according to the terminal’s general manager Guillermo Cunanan.

Cunanan issued the statement after meeting with Richard Hyman, aviation security liaison officer of the US Department of Transportation.

During the meeting, Hyman said the FAA has yet to inspect Terminal 3 and intends to do so in cooperation with Philippine aviation officials and the terminal’s concessionaire-operator Philippine International Air Terminals Co. (Piatco).

According to Cunanan, Hyman clarified that the FAA did have "discussions" with the Air Transportation Office (ATO) but those were focused on the two operational passenger terminals and not on Terminal 3 because "no evaluation has yet been done on the new terminal."

Hyman also stressed the FAA has made no official statement on the security aspects of NAIA 3 and the commercial areas of the terminal.

"Any unofficial statements on these issues have no basis as no inspection has been done (by FAA) on the facilities," Cunanan quoted Hyman as saying.

The US aviation official added that "concerns regarding NAIA 3 commercial areas will be limited to issues that affect the safety and security of American airlines and passengers."

Piatco spokesman Moises Tolentino said in a statement that misleading reports on the supposed FAA inspection proves "there are still unseen forces that want to derail the operation of NAIA (Terminal) 3 despite an order by President Arroyo to open it by Dec. 15.

"Those who opposed the opening of NAIA 3 are still hard at work up to this time to accomplish their sinister objective even after Piatco and the government have started forging a stronger relationship to make fully operational the one airport which Filipinos can be truly proud of," Tolentino said.

"They just won’t stop, even to the point of concocting more lies similar to those which they have peddled to teh public in the past," he said.

"But NAIA 3 will open as scheduled. In fact, final preparations, inspections and system checks are being done by our contractor as I speak," Tolentino added.

He said the consortium developing Terminal 3 is open to any inspection that proper authorities, including the FAA, may want to conduct "because the airport (was) built according to world standards."

Tolentino pointed out that Terminal was constructed using modern construction techniques and tried-and-tested materials and the contractor continuous to conduct safety checks and inspections.

"Terminal 3 can stand scrutiny as to its conformity (with) the highest safety and security standards. By that, we mean by the FAA or any other third-party inspection team," Tolentino said.