Govt to build Clark budget terminal in 2014

Lean Santos

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

The planned 45,000-sqm budget airport terminal project in Clark can accommodate up to 4.5 million passengers a year

BUDGET TERMINAL. DOTC Assistant Secretary Jaime Feliciano says the government plans to build a budget terminal in Clark in 2014. Photo by Lean Santos/Rappler

MANILA, Philippines – The Aquino government is planning to build a 45,000-square meter (sqm) budget terminal in Clark airport in 2014, an official said.

Transportation Assistant Secretary Jaime Feliciano said the planned budget terminal, projected to become the second largest airport in the country, will only host low-cost carriers (LCCs).

“What will happen is that we’ll build a new budget terminal in a new location (in the Clark area) so the LCCs will go to that terminal,” he said in a conference on leisure, tourism and gaming in the Philippines organized by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) and Asiamoney on Monday, May 27.

The 45,000-sqm budget terminal will increase the capacity of the airport under the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) by about 4 million to 4.5 million passsengers a year, according to Feliciano.

On the other hand, the existing Clark international terminal is being expanded to host legacy carriers.

Feliciano said the earlier plans did not include a budget terminal despite a significant portion of airline passengers are budget passengers.

“The plans before did not include a budget terminal when in fact, a big amount of the country’s air travellers are budget passengers,” he said.

In January, Center for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) reported that almost 80% of the country’s 15.5 million domestic air passengers and 30% of the 12.5 million international travellers were flown by budget airlines.

The planned construction of the budget terminal is expected to be completed in 2 years and the expansion of the Clark International Airport is expected be finished by September 2013. The cost is projected to be around P6 billion.

San Miguel, MPIC

Asked about prospective partners from the private sector for the project, Feliciano said conglomerates San Miguel Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) were in the radar but there’s nothing official yet.

“There’s support from the private sector. There were interests from San Miguel and MPIC but there was no official proposals sent to DOTC yet,” he said.

This is despite reports last September that San Miguel has withdrawn from the bidding of the low-cost terminal.

DOTC is hoping the president will give the go signal and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) approve of the plan very soon.

The transportation agency has already submitted a proposal to the PPP center, according to Feliciano, to speed up the bidding and awarding process.

“We hope the president gives the green light and NEDA approve of it soon. We will do things simultaneously and not sequentially to make the process faster.” – Rappler.com

Add a comment

Sort by

There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.

Summarize this article with AI

How does this make you feel?

Loading
Download the Rappler App!