Villarete: Hike in airport fees won’t hurt traveling public
VILLARETE (RIGHT)
THE increase in some airport fees, which the new Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) management planned to implement on Nov. 1, will not affect the general public.
This was the assurance of Nigel Paul Villarete, MCIA general manager, during yesterday’s public consultation on the proposed increase of aircraft
parking and tacking fees at theWaterfront Airport Hotel and Casino in Lapu-Lapu City on Thursday.
“Effects of the increases will not be to the general public, but to airline operators, both commercial and non-commercial,” Villarete said.
Concessionaire GMR-Megawide Corp. Airport Consortium (GMCAC), which is on its third year of managing the airport, called for the increase of these fees.
Domestic aircraft weighing up to 50,000 kg will be charged P25.54 per first half hour (after first two hours, which is free) from the current P25.20 while additional half hour or fraction thereof will be P20.43 from the current P20.16.
Those weighing 50,001 kg to 100,000 kg will be charged 210.97 from P208.17 for the first half hour and P48.51 from P47.87 for every succeeding half hour.
From 100,001 kg and over, charges will be P210.97 from the current P208.17 for the first hour and for every half hour after, P56.18 from P55.43.
Rates for international operations also vary. Lighting charges, imposed on operators that park at night, shall be 13 percent of daytime parking charges.
Tacking fees, which operators pay when they use passenger boarding bridges or “tubes,” will increase to $33.71 from the current $33.26 per bridge per hour.
Villarete said that even if airline operators would pass on this increase to their passengers, it would be insignificant.
“What can an increase of a few centavos do? Divide that by 180 (average number of passengers),” he said.
Based on his estimates, Villarete said there are 60 aircraft that land at the MCIA every day.
On April 22, 2014, the Department of Transportation and the MCIA Authority granted GMCAC the exclusive right and authority to operate, maintain, develop, design, construct, upgrade, finance, and manage the MCIA terminal project for 25 years.
Nov. 1, 2016 is the start of the third contract year as per concession agreement.
Under the agreement, GMCAC shall be free to impose and collect commercial charges on any service or facility within the project assets.
This will be the second time an increase in airport fees will be imposed, the first one being in 2015 as MCIA approached its second year under GMCAC management.
Villarete said an annual increase of airport fees is expected in the next 23 years under the agreement, subject to inflation pressure.
However, all requests for increases filed by GMCAC will always be subject to deliberation and public consultation.
Thursday’s public consultation was attended by representatives from airlines such as Cebu Pacific, Philippine Airlines, Jeju Air, and Eva Air, among others.
There were no objections to the proposed amendments on the airport fees. /Reporter Victor Anthony V. Silva
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