Steve Dicdican, general manager of the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA), said the airport’s passenger arrivals posted an increase in 2018. | MCIAA photo
CEBU CITY—The Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) marked its 29th anniversary Wednesday, July 31, 2019, with a remarkable growth in passenger traffic and in the number of flights.
MCIAA was created as a government-owned and controlled corporation through Republic Act 6958, which was approved on July 31, 1990.
It was tasked to undertake the economical, efficient and effective control, management and supervision of the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) and other airports in Cebu province that might be established in the future.
“The MCIA has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years. From having under seven million passengers per annum in 2014, we had over 11.4 million passengers pass through our gateway in 2018,” said MCIAA general manager Steve Dicdican in a statement posted on the authority’s Facebook account.
MCIA’s volume of passengers has increased by 13 percent in 2018, making it the busiest airport outside Manila, according to MCIAA.
“It is significant to note that, during this period, we have more than doubled our number of international passengers,” he added.
Second runway
As of April 30, 2019, MCIA recorded 595 international flights and 1,496 domestic flights. Around 27 international destinations are connected to Cebu.
MCIAA also plans to build a second runway and has awarded Phil JAC Inc. as the project consultant for the runway. The company tasks include project management and doing the runway design.
Dicdican earlier disclosed that the construction of the runway, which has a 3.3-kilometer length and P2.5 billion project cost, will start in January 2020.
MCIA has been winning global industry awards such as CAPA Best Asia-Pacific Regional Airport 2016 and CAPA Best Asia-Pacific Medium Airport 2018.
Recently, MCIA was also awarded the 2019 International Architecture Award for Airports in Lithuania, and cited as Finalist in the 2019 World Architecture Festival in Amsterdam. /bmjo