International departure area of Terminal 2 of the Mactan Cebu International Airport. | CDN Digital photo
LAPU-LAPU CITY, Philippines — Authorities from the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) assure that they are ready to handle the influx of returning Filipinos from China.
In a press conference on Monday, February 3, officials from the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) and GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corporation (GMCAC) announced that they had declared a state of emergency at the airport.
Read more: Amid coronavirus threat, Capitol places Cebu province under ‘State of Preparedness’
MCIAA general manager, lawyer Steve Dicdican, said he had signed the memorandum order declaring a state of emergency.
The memorandum effectively allowed MCIAA for a possible takeover of all facilities in the airport, and for the procurement of supplies and equipment needed to address the prevention of the spread of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
In line with the declaration, the MCIAA and the GMCAC — the airport’s private co-managing body, have also identified a holding area to place returning Filipino passengers before they will be transferred to their respective quarantine facilities.
READ RELATED STORY: MCIA: 79 Pinoys who arrived from China on Feb. 2 under self quarantine
GMCAC Chief Operating Officer Michael Lenane said they would be implementing a complete no-contact measure between passengers and airport workers.
“It will be a complete no-contact measure between passengers and our staff at the airport. There will be a bus that will deliver them to their holding area,” said Lenane.
Lenane added that the holding area would be situated within Gate 17 at Terminal 2 of the airport.
Read more: Filipinos arriving in Cebu from Hong Kong will be quarantined at Eversley
Airport officials also said they had discussed with the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH – 7) on how to transport passengers from the holding area at MCIA to their respective quarantine sites.
Decline in Air, Passenger Travel
With the travel restrictions applied to the whole of China, Dicdican said they would be anticipating a decline in air and passenger traffic.
Dicdican added that, based on present outlook, the temporary travel ban would affect 306 aircraft movements and 33,000 passengers to and from several cities and areas in China including Hong Kong and Macau.
Aircraft movement is the term used to describe the arrival and departure of airplanes in a specific airport.
Dicdican said Chinese nationals form the second largest number of foreign arrivals at MCIA, next to South Koreans.
The MCIA is the second busiest airport in the country, designed to accommodate 16 million passengers in one year.
Preparing for the worse
The MCIAA also said they had started preparing several measures in the event the 2019-nCoV ARD situation would escalate.
Dicdican announced that they were looking at four evacuation sites in Cebu in case the holding areas within the airport would not be enough to accommodate in the future.
“There will be one in Barangay Lahug (Cebu City), one in Asturias, and another in Medellin. There will also be one in the airport,” he added.
The MCIAA head said they had tapped the help of their private partners on sourcing the supplies needed for those who would stay in their holding areas and evacuation centers. /dbs