MCIA commended for receiving the ‘Carbon’ accreditation

CEBU, Philippines — Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco has lauded the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) for its Carbon accredited status that paves the way for a cleaner, greener future in the aviation and tourism industry.

“Congratulations to Mactan International Airport for achieving the distinction of being the FIRST in the Philippines to attain ‘Airport Carbon Accredited’ status,” Frasco said in her Facebook post.

Based on information from the Airport Carbon Accreditation, MCIA has achieved level 1 mapping and is the Philippines’ first ever airport to join the airport carbon accreditation program programme.

The ACA “is the only institutionally-endorsed, global carbon management certification programme for airports” and independently assesses and recognizes the efforts of airports to manage and reduce their carbon emissions through 7 levels of certification.

Now operated by Aboitiz Infracapital GMCAC, MCIA has conducted a thorough analysis of CO2 emissions within its operations and established a detailed plan for their reduction.

“The airport is committed to decarbonization, planning several initiatives to reduce its environmental impact. These include minimizing the use of non-biodegradable waste on-site, introducing infrastructure projects aimed at lowering energy consumption, and integrating renewable energy sources,” read part of the statement of the Airport Carbon Accreditation.

Stefano Baronci, director general of ACI Asia-Pacific & Middle East, also commended MCIA for its level 1 certification.

“Mactan-Cebu International Airport’s commitment to contributing towards our industry’s shared vision of net-zero emissions by 2050 has increased the number of Asia-Pacific and Middle East airports participating in the ACA to 85. ACI APAC & MID looks forward to collaborating with Mactan-Cebu and the Philippine Authorities to address the challenges of climate change,” Baronci said.

Athanasios Titonis, CEO of MCIA, expressed his pride for joining Airport Carbon Accreditation.

“Achieving Carbon Neutrality is a long journey that requires time, dedication, and innovation in our approach to reducing carbon emissions,”Titonis has said.

The Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) also expressed how grateful they are to Sec. Frasco and her team for their support. MCIAA also looks forward to more collaborations with DOT.

DOT has a baseline target of 7.7 million arrivals this year after breaching its 4.8 million arrivals target in 2023 with 5.45 million international visitor arrivals.

For this year so far, the country has already recorded 1,227,815 international tourist arrivals from January to March 5, 2024.

Foreign tourist arrivals is at 1,160,129 or 94.49 percent and the rest are Overseas Filipinos (OFs).

In terms of international visitor arrivals, South Korea remains the country’s top source market for visitors with 349,956 or 28.50 percent of the total arrivals, followed by the United States of America with 195,603 or 15.93 percent. It is then followed by China with 85,876; Japan with 73,159, and Canada with 50,555.

The rest in the top 10 list are arrivals from Australia with 50,488; Taiwan with 42,955; United Kingdom with 30,507; Singapore with 25,253; and Germany with 20,816. — (FREEMAN)