Bantayan airport now under MCIAA

CEBU, Philippines — The authority to manage the airport in Bantayan Island has been transferred from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) to the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority(MCIAA) last Friday.

MCIAA Operations Manager Cristina Matondo told The FREEMAN that the ceremonial turnover was done last Friday with her as the representative of the airport management and Engineer Fermin Agpasa representing CAAP.

Matondo said the island airport continues to accommodate small aviation operations.  She clarified that it will be MCIAA that will manage and GMR-Megawide will not be taking part of it.

With the “not-so-good” current state of the airport, Matondo said that the talks for its development are still underway. She said that there is still a need for the Cebu Provincial Government and the MCIAA to discuss and sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA).

It is the provincial government, Matondo said, who owns the lot of the airport in Sta. Fe, Bantayan Island. CAAP, MCIAA, and the Capitol used to jointly operate the airport until their Memorandum of Agreement expired in 2013.

In January last year, Capitol planned to reactivation the airports in Camotes and Bantayan islands and included it in the six-year executive and legislative agenda (ELA). In November 2017, Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III and representatives of the MCIAA had a meeting to discuss updates on the two airports.

For the first quarter of the year, six employees of MCIAA will handle the operations in the Bantayan airport.

Matondo said that they are targeting to have a total of 10 employees stationed there. Meanwhile, the 10 CAAP employees who used to work in the airport were relieved and transferred elsewhere. (FREEMAN)