Mactan-Cebu International Airport. | PHOTO: MCIAA website
The Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) is seeing busier operations amid the resurgence of air travel to and from local and international destinations.
According to data from MCIA Authority (MCIAA), passenger volume at the country’s second busiest airport grew by nearly 11 percent to 8.32 million in the first nine months of the year from 7.51 million in the same period last year.
Bulk or 6.19 million were domestic passengers.
Meanwhile, a total of 72,152 flights were operated from the Cebu gateway. This is 8-percent up from 66,591 flights registered last year.
Over 58,800 domestic flights were serviced while 13,336 flights flew to international destinations.
The airport welcomed this month the inaugural flight of United Airlines for the Cebu-Narita-US route. This came a year after United introduced its direct flight from Manila to San Francisco.
Philippine Airlines (PAL) is set to begin its flights linking Cebu and Osaka by Dec. 22 amid growing tourist arrivals from Japan.
Cebu-Osaka will be offered thrice weekly initially. By Feb. 26, 2025, the flag carrier will add an extra flight.
Lucio Tan-led PAL will deploy a 199-seater Airbus A321ceo for the Cebu-Osaka route.
PAL president and chief operating officer Stanley Ng earlier said the “direct flights from Mactan to Kansai will help us promote the tourism industry and local businesses in Cebu and the Visayas region, and deepen both bilateral relations and cultural ties with our Japanese counterparts.”
Currently, MCIA services 25 airlines including Air Busan, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, EVA Air, Jeju Air, Scoot, Korean Air, TigerAir, Cebu Pacific, PAL and AirAsia.
The operations and maintenance of the airport was transferred to the Aboitiz Group from Megawide Construction Corp. and GMR Airports International BV in 2022 after the parties entered into a P25-billion share subscription and transfer agreement.
Megawide and GMR secured the contract to develop the airport in 2014. Among its initiatives included construction of Terminal 2, renovation of Terminal 1 and building of additional landside facilities. INQ