DOTC urged to study twin airports proposal

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is being urged to consider the twin airports solution or the coexistence and improvement of the Clark International Airport (CIA) and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) as the country seeks to expand its tourism industry.

In a statement released yesterday, the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC) called on the DOTC to consider the twin airports solution to best cater to the growth of the tourism industry.

“While we recognize that the DOTC is also looking at the option of closing NAIA in favor of a new international gateway, we do believe that both aviation hubs would share a symbiotic relationship that will benefit the domestic and foreign traveling public,” JFC said.

“We strongly support the development of a Clark-NAIA twin airports policy for the National Capital and Central Luzon regions because we believe this is the best solution to accommodate future growth of Philippine aviation,” it said.

Considering that the passenger catchment area for Metro Manila and Central Luzon is approximately 40 million people, comparable to Shanghai and Tokyo, the country can learn from these two Asian megacities, which are now served by two international airports.

Tokyo has developed Narita International Airport (located 58 kilometers east of Tokyo Station) and restricted Haneda International Airport (14 kilometers south of Tokyo) to domestic flights.

Shanghai has developed the Pudong International Airport (30 kilometers from the city center) for international travelers and the Hongqiao International Airport for other passengers.

“With anticipated continued high economic growth for the Philippines and achievement of the government tourism plan goal of 10 million visitors by 2016, we urge learning from examples cited above to develop and upgrade rapidly the existing airports at NAIA and Clark,” the JFC said.

By having twin airports, the group said upgrades should be undertaken, which should include the modernization of all four terminals of NAIA and its navigational equipment, and inter-terminal transfer facilities.

In Clark, JFC said, modernization projects should include rapid expansion of the budget terminal, construction of a gateway terminal, and installation of complete navigational equipment.

In a separate statement, the JFC also called on the government to ensure that all public-private partnership (PPP) projects are commercially attractive and viable, even as it expressed concern over the unsuccessful bidding of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 Cavite Extension project.

The group said the project is the largest and one of the most important under the PPP program as it is seen to improve the transportation efficiency for commuters in the region south of Metro Manila.

“With the strong economic growth the Philippines has achieved in 2013 and is expected to maintain, future growths may be impeded by delays in critical transportation projects such as the LRT-1 extension,” the JFC said.

Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said earlier the agency’s bids and awards committee is looking at extending the bidding process for the LRT-1 extension project in order to address the concerns of the pre-qualified bidders that withdrew their participation.

Only the Light Rail Manila Consortium submitted a bid for the project out of the four pre-qualified bidders.

The consortium is led by First Pacific’s infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Ayala Corp. through AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. with a combined stake of 45 percent.