Foreign execs want DMIA as main airport

Foreign business groups urged the government to utilize the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in Clark, Pampanga as the main gateway to the country.

The groups, organized under the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines (JFC), cited the need for the government to use a better airport facility in view of the deteriorating runway conditions and terminal limitations of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Foreign businessmen aired their concern over the poor infrastructure of the NAIA terminals and the roads around the airport, which they said was turning off foreign tourists and investors.

In a presentation of their statement on tourism and the major airports in Central Luzon, the JFC expressed the belief that the NAIA complex is falling short as the country’s doorstep to foreign tourists.

Brian Lane, chairman of the transportation and infrastructure committee of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Inc. (AmCham), said the bleak runway and terminal conditions at the NAIA Terminals I and II and the controversy surrounding the opening of NAIA Terminal III raised the need to push ahead with efforts to develop the DMIA.

“The terminals obviously are antiquated and inadequate. They say that first impressions count. I believe in that. And the first impression when you arrive in the Manila airport and work your way through ... leaves a lot to be desired,” Lane said.

Lane stressed the JFC’s position that the bleak situation at the NAIA highlights the importance of DMIA.

“We are suggesting, urging very strongly, that after serious thought, we feel Clark is the future for Philippine aviation as an international gateway,” Lane said.

Lane made the appeal during a presentation of the JFC statement in a briefing the federation of foreign business chambers organized by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

Lane spoke in behalf of the foreign business chambers making up the JFC.

He stressed the need for the government to utilize DMIA as the country’s primary gateway.

“With the terminal and runway congestion at NAIA, CLark needs to be developed and developed now,” Lane said.

“Failure to do that will impose constraints on the airlines and quite honestly, we lose the business that we could have had to Thailand, to Indonesia, to Malaysia, to the tourist competitors,” Lane said.

He warned poor facilities in the country would turn off investors complaining about the inadequate connection to Manila.

“And these are small things, but if you are a CEO of a major international investor and you can fly wherever you want... if the first impression you get of a country you are looking at or considering is a difficult airport with all kinds of old-fashioned constraints, your attitude to that country starts on a very negative basis,” he said.

A JFC study said the two intersecting runways at the NAIA were old and not designed for the needs of modern aviation.

“The runway’s design is well below standards for new generation aircraft, raising serious safety concerns,” Lane said in quoting the JFC study.

“Distances between the centerline of runways and centerlines of taxiways do not meet the new International Civil Aviation Organization standards for new generation aircraft such as A380s,” the study further pointed out.

Aside from runway safety brought on by the vintage design of the NAIA runway, the JFC also raised the limitations brought on by effectively having one runway at the NAIA because of the intersecting runways.

It noted that the runway congestion at NAIA is causing arriving international flights to wait on a “holding pattern” for as long as 30 minutes, incurring additional costs and delays on airline firms.

According to Lane, the JFC is not pinning its hopes on opening the controversial NAIA Terminal III.  

With the opening of the NAIA III, Lane noted one runway leading to the domestic terminal will have to be closed and become a taxiway as indicated in the JFC study.

Lane pointed out that in comparison, the DMIA offered two runways with international standards.

But at its current state, the DMIA has yet to be fully developed, he said.

“Like any airport, it has constraints. It has, like Manila, inadequate domestic and international terminals,” Lane said.

Lane said they were closely monitoring the development of DMIA.

In view of this, Lane said the government should decide strongly on developing DMIA to replace the NAIA as the country’s main gateway.

“The political decision must be made to transition from Manila to Clark,” Lane said.

He also pointed out the effort of making DMIA the country’s gateway would entail establishing a road and rail line that would connect the airport to Metro Manila.

“It’s not a unique problem to the Philippines.  Every major city who’s built a new airport outside its city like Hong Kong, like KL (Kuala Lumpur), like Tokyo, like Paris, has to address the connection, the ground transportation. And most of them has gone or are going for high speed rail,” Lane said.

Aside from developing the airport in Clark, Lane said the JFC is interested in what government is doing to develop the Mactan-Cebu International Airport; the Kalibo airport in Aklan; the Puerto Princesa International Airport in Palawan and the Laoag International Airport in Ilocos Norte.

DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza, for his part, said the government has already made the policy to develop the DMIA.

He pointed out the development of the airport was already being pursued by the Clark International Airport Corporation.

Responding to the need for a connection from DMIA to Manila, Mendoza said that the North Luzon Railway Corporation (Northrail) is one of the big-ticket transportation infrastructure projects being pursued by the DOTC.