Long-term developments in MCIA continues despite air travel plunge from COVID

The Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) announced on July 11 that they have secured Department of Health (DOH) and Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) accreditations to officially start operations of MCIA’s own molecular laboratory to run COVID-19 tests.  | Photos courtesy of MCIAA

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Despite the downturn in the air travel industry due to COVID-19, improvement projects at the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) will continue as part of its long-term development.

Lawyer Steve Dicdican, general manager of MCIA Authority, said the airport is now catching up with the construction of the second runway which they intend to complete in the early part of 2022.

In a press statement released by the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV), Dicdican said there are good prospects for Cebu’s aviation growth albeit projecting that it may take up to two years for the aviation industry to get back to its pre-COVID growth levels.

“We (the airport) will grow as the market grows. Our airport has a modular design so we can always expand. We are built for growth,” Dicdican said.

Dicdican added that MCIA may be looking at handling 35 million passengers annually if the airport expansion plans are realized.

“We anticipate future growth. We need to ensure we are sustainable,” Dicdican said.

The National Economic Development Authority in Central Visayas (NEDA-7) earlier said infrastructure developments are a way to pump prime the recovery of the region’s economy from the downturns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

READ: NEDA-7: Infra to pump prime economic recovery from COVID crisis

COVID’s effect on MCIA

From over 12.6 million in passenger traffic last year, Dicdican said the projected passenger traffic for 2020 may drop to as low as three million, the lowest in more than 10 years.

“The impact is really big. Prior to COVID, we had 12.6 million in passenger traffic last year. Starting February this year onwards, traffic drastically went down,” he said.

Prior to the coronavirus disease outbreak worldwide, MCIA accommodated about 31,100 passengers daily and 1,900 commercial flights weekly.

Although operations at the MCIA has started to gradually resume, Dicdican said it may take time before airlines will respond and get back on its operations as travel demands remain low.

The resumption of the operations in MCIA also went along with the opening of its own molecular laboratory for COVID-19 testing.

READ: MCIA molecular lab for COVID-19 tests up and running

MCIA is the first airport in the country to have its dedicated COVID-19 testing laboratory that employs the ‘gold standard’ real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) techniques. / dcb