By Louella Desiderio (The
Philippine Star) | Updated August 13, 2016 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - The Department
of Transportation wants special powers to authorize the Civil Aeronautics Board
(CAB) to address air traffic particularly in the congested Manila airport
through the utilization of other airports.
A copy of the overview of the state
of transportation in the country sent by the Transport department to media
showed the agency wants to use the special powers to address traffic not just
in Metro Manila’s roads, but also in the country’s main international gateway.
“(The) solution (would be) special
powers to authorize CAB to redistribute air traffic to Clark, Davao and other
developmental international gateways,” the Transport department said.
Last year, the Ninoy Aquino
International Airport (NAIA) served over 36 million passengers, higher than the
airport’s annual maximum capacity of 35 million passengers.
The Department of Transportation has
earlier said it wants to promote the use of the Clark International Airport to
decongest the NAIA.
To promote the Clark International
Airport, Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade said the government has plans of
building a railway system to link either the NAIA in Pasay or Trinoma mall in
Quezon City to the Clark airport.
He said a formal proposal would be
submitted by the Department of Transportation as the plan needs to be reviewed
by the National Economic and Development Authority.
Apart from the railway system, the
department also has plans of moving turboprop or small aircraft from the NAIA
to Clark.
The Transport department is likewise
planning to remove the general aviation operations or private jets from NAIA to
either Sangley, Clark or Subic to decongest the airport once dubbed as the world’s
worst.
Philippine Airlines chairman Lucio
Tan and Cebu Pacific president and CEO Lance Gokongwei have both expressed
support for the plan to move the general aviation operations out of the NAIA.
Tugade said the move is expected to
give an additional 18 to 21 percent of aviation space to commercial flights in
Manila’s airport.
The department, likewise, wants to
pursue development of regional airports.
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