Is it time to give up NAIA in favor of Clark?
CLARK FREEPORT—The series of recent diversions to Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) of flights bound for the Manila airport has revived the clamor to make the airport here as the country’s primary international gateway.
On July 3, some 30 aircraft were forced to land at DMIA due to haze and smog at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). Similar moves occurred on June 19, 22 and 28 due to either poor visibility or failure of navigational aids at NAIA.
Alexander Cauguiran, executive vice president of Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) which manages DMIA, said the diversions only showed NAIA’s inability to cope with the projected growth in international flight and passenger movements.
He said this restricted the country’s potential for increased economic activities in trade and tourism.
“DMIA is our country’s best option to keep [pace] with other Asian countries [which have] better airports and expansion projects,” he said.
Cauguiran said DMIA at the former US Clark Air Base had been certified by the International Civil Aviation Organization for its precision approach runway and emergency services.
NAIA has become “heavily congested because of its limited area for the expansion of its runways and terminal facilities,” he said.
Cauguiran said the DMIA location “makes it one of the largest aviation complexes in the Asia-Pacific with additional area for another runway, on top of its modern instrument landing system and other navigational aids, meteorological equipment and complete airfield lighting system.”
He said DMIA in the 2,367-hectare Clark civil aviation complex also had a new $10-million terminal radar approach control system, considered as the most advanced in the country.
On April 28, 1994, then President Fidel Ramos issued Executive Order No. 174 designating Clark as the future site of the country’s premier international airport.
EO 174 cited the International Air Transportation Association’s forecast at that time “that more than 376 million enplanements (51.1 percent of world total) will be in the Asia-Pacific by the year 2010, a fourfold increase from 1990.”
The executive order noted that in other Asian countries, airport expansion were outside major cities “to alleviate congestion in airspace, runways and terminals, and to keep pace with rapid economic development.”
The order stressed the need of “relieving Metro Manila of further increase in migration, congestion, pollution, traffic and other urban ills.”
EO 174 tasked the Bases Conversion and Development Authority and Clark Development Corp. to recommend the organization of CIAC and the formulation of a master development plan for an airport with a 14-million passenger capacity, by 1998.
But until now, the DMIA remains an alternate airport being used only by Asiana Airlines, Cebu Pacific, Seair, Spirit of Manila, Tiger Airways and Air Asia.
Clark-Manila transport link
Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the Department of Transportation and Communications in 2008 to turn DMIA into the country’s premier international airport in anticipation of the eventual closure of NAIA.
Ms Arroyo then gave a time frame of six months up to a year to turn DMIA into the country’s premier airport, as recommended by the DoTC and the Department of Tourism, which noted the congestion and the lack of room for expansion at NAIA.
CIAC officials said the reluctance of many airlines to use DMIA prevented its full operation. They said DMIA lacked a bigger terminal that could accommodate more passengers and there was no efficient transport system from Clark to Metro Manila.
“We have to build the facilities. The annual passenger traffic now in NAIA, both domestic and international, is about to reach 25 million. Our capacity in DMIA, even with the expanded terminal, is only two to three million a year,” CIAC president Victor Jose Luciano told the Inquirer by phone on Monday.
Aside from this, Luciano said big international airlines still preferred NAIA because of the “lack of connectivity” between Clark and Metro Manila.
“Whether we like it or not, Metro Manila is the center of commerce and the economy, the seat of government, the place for amusement, shopping and it is the hub for connecting flights to any point in the Philippines,” he said
