The departure area of Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA), Terminal 2. | CDN Digital Photo by Morexette Marie Erram
CEBU CITY, Philippines – The country’s second busiest gateway continues to accommodate more passengers as leisure travel gradually regains ground two years after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Latest statistics from the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) showed that the Mactan airport welcomed 2,121,842 passengers during the first half of this year. It was a 350 percent increase compared to the 471,785 passengers recorded between January to June in the previous year.
By contrast, the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) only welcomed 1.3 million passengers in 2021.
MCIAA is the government body co-managing the airport.
The bulk of the passenger traffic at MCIA was registered between April to June which stood at 1,465,712, accounting for 69 percent.
Domestic passengers continue to be the largest contributor to passenger volume in the airport. Between January to June, a total of 1,951,514 passengers from domestic flights passed through MCIA.
On the other hand, MCIA accommodated only 170,328 international passengers. The numbers, however, signify an improvement.
The same data from MCIAA showed that between January to June 2021, there were only 52,249 international passengers that passed through the Mactan airport.
Airport officials and executives are optimistic international flights connecting Cebu to overseas destinations may rebound to their pre-pandemic levels next year.
Aside from passenger traffic, MCIA also observed a 174 percent in growth in air traffic during the first half of 2022.
They recorded a total of 20,551 flights. Of this number, 18,258 happened to be domestic flights while the remaining 2,293 are international ones.
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