DOTC shelves plan to build 3rd runway

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is studying another plan to build a new terminal at the busy Ninoy Aquino International Airport complex.

Transportation Secretary Joseph Abaya said this was the new direction after the department decided to drop a plan to build a third runway at Naia, citing various obstacles like its effect on existing infrastructure like a nearby highway and residential communities.

Abaya said air traffic congestion would be addressed with a “runway optimization project” while a new terminal would help ease passenger congestion.

“We’re waiting for the decision of the procurement. It will take them a year to study and recommend and execute the plan. By the end of 2015, we’ll know,” Abaya told reporters.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines had estimated that commercial carriers operating at Naia lost about P7 billion due to added fuel and maintenance costs as a result of air traffic congestion.

A third runway was supposed to allow more aircraft movements, or takeoff and landing events, which are currently capped at 40 movements per hour.

But further studies showed a third runway would affect existing radar facilities, the C-5 Highway as well as require the expropriation of nearby land occupied by private subdivisions and informal settlers.

“The consultant said the main thing to do is preserve your main runway, maximize your main runway, try to eliminate all forms of obstructions or delays on it, keep planes off it most of the time,” Abaya said. The DOTC earlier tapped Dutch consultant Rudd Ummels for the runway optimization project.

In place of a third runway, the DOTC plans to build a new passenger terminal to accommodate increasing numbers of travellers expected in the coming years.

Naia, through its four passenger terminals, handles over 32 million passengers a year, as against its capacity of 30 million passengers, the department noted earlier.

Abaya said the new terminal “will require less land so we don’t eat into private subdivisions.”