Air travel in Asia continues to surge, and this become one thing important to consider by the Philippines to develop its congested airport hub as it is going to double its tourist intake by 2022. The Philippines Government is considering adding airport to serve the capital city and nearby areas, including a sprawling airport city complex that could handle million passengers a year.
The process of developing the airport hub has been issued years ago. In 2014, The San Miquel Corporation formally presenter its proposal for the new improvement of airport construction. The brand new international airport along the Cyberbay Reclamation Area cost $10 billion that would exceed the high standards set by existing international gateways in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Covering the cities of Las Pinas and Paranaque, it is believed that the entire project could be completed within 7 years of ground breaking with the first two runways to be completed by the fifth year.
San Miguel had proposed a state-of-the-art, multiple runway, inter-modal airport on a reclaimed property along Manila Bay, which will be an alternative to the congested NAIA. The big infrastructure project is not only developing the Nino Aquino International Airport (NAIA) but also the airports outside the city of Manila in order to encourage traffic in airports other than the main gateway of NAIA. The other airports to develop are Bacolod-Silay International Airport, The IloIlo International Airport, the Davao International Airport-Laguindingan Airport and New Bohol (Panglao) Airport.
In the Dueterte era, the development continues with the big-ticket projects of the government for Central Luzon include the Clark-Manila railway system, Clark-Subic cargo railway system, Clark International Airport new terminal building, and Clark Green City. The Manila-Clark railway project will assure one hour travel time from Manila to Clark and vice versa. This transportation system is expected to be operational by 2021, while the new terminal is expected to be completed by 2019.
Manila’s airport handled 36.7 million passengers in 2015 — more than the 30 million combined capacities of its terminals.
Last year, 5.9 million tourists arrived in the Philippines, and the target is to attract 12 million by the year 2022, said Tourism Undersecretary Benito Bengzon Jr. adding that the government is developing more air routes to achieve its goal.
Nearly 99 percent of arrivals in the Philippines, an archipelago, are through airports.
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