New, modern airport along coastal road proposed

MANILA, Philippines - Two aviation industry advocates have strongly urged the Aquino administration to seriously look into the possibility of reclaiming new areas along the length of Coastal Road in Parañaque City and Las Piñas City and constructing a bigger and modern international airport there.

In a briefing with journalists covering the regular 777 Media Forum at the Wine Museum Hotel and Resto in Pasay City, Robert Lim Joseph, founder of several organizations, including the Tourism Educators and Movers Philippines (TEAM Philippines), and retired commercial pilot Capt. Amado Soliman, president of the Air Safety Foundation, said the plan is doable and more practical than constructing a new airport outside of Metro Manila.

“Reclaiming land from the sea and building a modern airport there has been done in the past with success in Europe and Asia,” Joseph said.

Joseph cited as examples the Hong Kong International Airport, which covers 12.48 kilometers of reclaimed land between the islands of Chek Lap Kok and Lam Chau; the Kansai International Airport in the middle of Osaka Bay off the Honshu shore which now serves as an international hub for four Japanese carriers, and Macau International Airport which was built on a patch of land reclaimed from the sea.

Joseph and Soliman said they are willing to submit a plan to the Aquino government, particularly to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), containing the details of the new airport development.

Soliman said if the new airport is realized along the reclaimed Coastal Road, “this would be a legacy for President Aquino.”

He said the proposed airport will be the most viable, cost-efficient solution to the worsening air traffic and passenger congestion at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). NAIA Terminals 1, 2 and 3 share a runway, resulting in air traffic congestion and forcing airport authorities to schedule international airlines to use and land in the airport late in the evening to the wee hours of the morning. This has caused and continues to cause inconvenience to both airlines and passengers.

Soliman said double or triple parallel runways could be constructed to accommodate the increasing number of air traffic from local and international airlines and the wide bodied Boeing 777 and Airbus 380 jumbo planes and large commercial and military haulers like the Russian Antonov.