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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Project runaway

Editorial
Project runaway

THE 30-year-old Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 1 started its P1.16-billion renovation project last week. We hope the money—relatively meager compared to the billions of dollars other countries pour into the improvement of their main international gateways—would be well spent and could actually make a dent on Naia’s host of problems. This, of course, remains to be seen.

Naia has consistently ranked among the world’s worst airports in various reviews. Recently, an article in USA Today written by online editor Jason Clampet of Frommers.com ranked it as the second-worst airport in the world, describing Naia as “very dated with little in the way of appealing dining or shopping options.”

In November 2011, CNNGo.com rated it as the 5th worst in the world, based on passengers’ observation on smelliest toilets, longest queues, the rudest staff and dysfunctional airport terminal facilities.

And in October 2011, the travel web site sleepinginairports.com said it was the world’s worst, based on poll votes and user reviews that cited safety concerns, lack of comfortable seating, rude staff, hostile security, poor facilities, few services to pass the time, bribery and other hassles.

The new tourism campaign “It’s more fun in the Philippines” would certainly ring hollow if the government did not do anything about these consistently poor ratings. Our airports need to be fun, too, because for many travelers, an airport terminal provides the first, and maybe even final, impression about a destination. It’s a place where travelers spend much time, particularly waiting for departing and connecting flights.

And there lies our airport’s other, and a lot of people would say bigger, problem—the waiting.

The Philippines only has one international runway (runway 24) at its premier airport to service commercial air carriers and general aviation (Gen-Av) airplanes, such as air taxis, executive planes, helicopters and for-hire aircraft, compared to many of our Asian neighbors that have at least two. Changi Airport in Singapore, for example, has two parallel runways, and so does Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

The fact that there’s only one international runway is a real constraint, as this paper’s veteran aviation reporter, Recto Mercene, had long been writing about. International flights are disrupted when even just a single incident occurs on that runway.

Former President Ferdinand Marcos saw this drawback and had reportedly ordered the building of a second runway, but he was deposed before the project came to fruition.

Disruptions to flights owing to congestion compound the already problematic situation at our premier airport. Local air traffic controllers routinely have to use their “bag of tricks” in order to ensure the safety of all flights going into and out of Manila. They have to impose longer separation times between flights during peak seasons or holidays like Christmas and New Year. Flights are delayed because air traffic controllers must pick safety over convenience, and rightly so.

In December arrivals and departures at Naia reached a peak of 63 aircraft per hour, causing endless hours of delay among domestic and international carriers to the chagrin of incoming and outgoing passengers.

The ideal number of arrivals and departures, as suggested by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) is only about 40 airplanes per hour.

At the peak of the travel season during the Christmas holidays, arrivals and departures are recorded at about 900 aircraft each day, according to the Air Traffic Services (ATS). The average daily arrival last year was 300 airplanes, which peaked to more than 700 a day in November.

Airline companies have complained that their pilots are regularly delayed an average of 30 minutes, some of them waiting for nearly an hour before being able to leave the ground.

According to the Airline Operators Council, a typical four-engine airplane spends about P30,000 per minute of spent fuel while waiting for take-off clearance.

The ongoing Naia renovation involves the construction of a Rapid Exit Taxiway (RET) that would supposedly allow more aircrafts to land and take-off on a per hour basis, reducing delays and congestions.

We really wish our airport authorities were right about this remedial measure as there doesn’t seem to be any other immediate solution to better manage airport congestion at this time.

The Aquino administration has said it would move the premier international airport in Metro Manila to the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark, Pampanga. But this project requires major infrastructure and logistical changes that would take at least five to 10 years to accomplish, if it is done at all. The construction of a high-speed railway system linking Clark and Metro Manila, and moving the airlines and support services to Clark, will certainly not be easy.

In the meantime, we have to make do improving current airport infrastructure to accommodate the millions more of tourists expected to arrive because of the government’s renewed tourism campaign.

Hopefully, we can do away with the flight delays with the completion of the RET project, work on the slow-moving security queues by eliminating red tape and corruption, improve airport ambience and services that are among the key gripes of foreign tourists. These may be small things compared to the bigger problem of having just one runway but they still matter to travelers and would certainly make our international airport more fun.

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