Those of us who travelled abroad for the holidays are likely to have stories to tell about the airports we used. Those who went through airports like
Indeed, those who travelled in our region will likely have good stories to tell about how well designed and passenger friendly airports the airport are. Those who travelled through US airports will likely wonder what's going on because their airports are nothing in comparison to the new airports in
In my case, I had to endure three hours in the immigration line at LAX waiting for my turn to be processed by an immigration officer. At least, I was not a transit passenger trying to catch a connecting flight.
On the same line with me was a group of passengers from a
It is a very busy airport. At least six flights arrived on the hour my PAL flight did.
All those passengers must go through a handful of immigration officers. Transit passengers suffer the same long wait as everyone else.
That's a pity because the Americans have taken serious steps to modernize the appearance of the
Over the last few visits, I noticed the passenger waiting area is starting to look like one of the nicer airports in our region. Indeed, a visitor's first impression of a country is formed by the airport experience.
And if a country has a serious tourism program, a decent airport both in looks and services is a must. This is why
26. The country handed over development and operations of
That's interesting for us because while the Indonesian government issues guarantees, our guarantee limit MAGA to executive actions only. The other interesting thing is that we have also awarded an operations and management contract to a consortium that includes Changi for Clark.
Another consortium that also includes Changi is about to win O and M of
Good airports are vital to an economy's growth. Our local airline industry has been bullish and has been investing huge amounts of capital on expanding their fleet of modern aircrafts.
Unfortunately, government has failed to keep pace through airport modernization. Historical growth rates for the airline industry indicate that demand for air travel grows at a multiple of GDP growth.
Rates of approximately 1.5 to two times GDP growth are common.
That is why it is difficult to understand why our past administrations neglected the development of our airports. They were pretty obsessed about GDP growth, so why didn't they see can the importance of adequate infrastructure like airports.
For
Given the archipelagic geography, the propensity for air travel is even higher! Indeed, the growth of demand for airport services was spurred in the past decades by budget carriers like Cebu Pacific and
More prople are flying than ever and our airports are not coping with this trend. The main gateway,
Even if the consortium of taipans manages to win award of their unsolicited proposal to modernize
As our tourism promotion efforts start delivering more visitors, gateway airports to tourism sites will increasingly show an inability to handle increased load. Privately managed
But even Mactan must start building its second runway or suffer the same problems as
But unless the privatization of its management is fast tracked, the JICA funded airport will be under-utilized and may start deteriorating. Davao, Cagayan de Oro and Iloilo all require upgrades and professional management to deliver optimum performance.
I don't see DOTr moving with more speed to make those upgrades possible. Clark will soon inaugurate a new terminal and construct a second runway.
But its ability to divert more traffic from
With Singapore Changi's managers set to take over management of Clark and
We must keep up with the region at last.
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