New Cebu airport terminal to lure 12.5 million passengers

MANILA, Philippines — The Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) Terminal 2, which was inaugurated by President Duterte yesterday, would raise the airport’s annual capacity to 12.5 million passengers.

Duterte said he was amazed as he toured the airport, which had as one of its designers world-renowned furniture maker Kenneth Cobonpue, a Cebuano.

“I was awed when I started to walk towards this place. This airport is so beautiful. I wish I this had when I was mayor in Davao for 23 years. I suppose that I’d also like the Davaoeños to enjoy an airport as beautiful as you have here, ” Duterte said in his speech.

GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC) president Louie Ferrer said the airport was constructed to accommodate the increasing passenger demand.

“For the past years, MCIA’s demand had exceeded the physical capacity of its terminal. With the addition of Terminal 2, not only will we be able to sustainably cope with the steadily increasing number of passengers, we will also be able to open Cebu to more international flights,” Ferrer said.

GMCAC is composed of Megawide Construction Corp. and GMR Infrastructure Ltd. of India, which took over the operations of MCIA in November 2014 and broke ground for the construction of Terminal 2 in June 2015.

Covering 65,000 square meters, MCIA Terminal 2 will serve as an international terminal and open for full operation on July 1.

Terminal 2 is expected to reduce congestion by increasing the MCI’s passenger capacity to 12.5 million per year from the current 4.5 million annually.

The new terminal was designed as a world-class facility and resort gateway, with the structure composed of an array of glulam arches.

It will offer passengers various retail options as it has approximately 3,000 sqm of gross leasable area dedicated to commercial space.

It has 48 check-in counters that are expandable to 72, as well as provisions for seven passenger boarding bridges which could be expanded to 12 boarding bridges serving wide and narrow body aircraft.

With the opening of Terminal 2 and launch of new flights out of Cebu, passenger traffic at MCIA is expected to reach 11.2 million passengers this year, higher than last year’s 10 million.

“Terminal 2 is a testament to GMR Group’s credentials as a leading global airport developer and operator. We are optimistic about the Philippines’ growth story, specifically in aviation, and look forward to contributing further to its ongoing Build, Build, Build program,” GMCAC chairman Srinivas Bommidala said.

GMCAC has plans to further expand the MCIA.

Last February, GMCAC was given original proponent status for its proposal to upgrade and expand the MCIA through rehabilitation of existing runway, building a new runway and construction of a third terminal.

Being granted original proponent status means the proponent would have the right to match an offer made by another group when a Swiss challenge is conducted.