THE Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) supports a holistic approach to develop an aviation system for the Greater Manila Area and Luzon, which means upgrading the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and making Clark airport an alternative.

The rapid increase in visitor volume, mostly passing through the NAIA, calls for immediate action and harnessing available resources to provide the needed infrastructure and management support for the growing number of air passengers, it said.

In a statement on Thursday, MAP said its welcomes the announcements of the government to undertake infrastructure development, an indispensable component of a holistic aviation system.

“We fully support the plan of the Department of Transportation (DoTr) to optimize, through upgrades, the existing NAIA while redeveloping the Clark International Airport,” it said.

The association noted that Tokyo is expanding Haneda airport to supplement Narita. Shanghai has its HongXiao in addition to Pudong. Berlin’s Tempelhoff continues to operate in addition to Tegel. Washington D.C. has Reagan National besides Dulles and Baltimore.

“We back the decision of DoTr to maintain and upgrade NAIA, a valuable state asset. Upgrading the existing NAIA facilities now will provide early and welcome relief to the present problem of severe passenger and aircraft traffic congestion at a time well within the term of the current administration,” it said.

“Pending completion of the upgrades, one quick way of mitigating the congestion in NAIA is to make Clark attractive as an alternate departure and arrival airport through appropriate inducements,” MAP noted.

A fast train plying the Tutuban-Clark route has been presented as part of the “Build, Build, Build” initiative under Dutertenomics. This is the second important component of the proposed aviation system, next to the two gateways.

A fast train link will enable Clark to support NAIA while serving the needs of travelers to and from Central and Northern Luzon.

For better connectivity and convenience of the traveling public, “we suggest that the proposed fast train to Clark be extended to NAIA, instead of terminating at Tutuban, Manila,” MAP said.

19 May 2017
By Raadee S. Sausa