Megawide Construction Corp. and partner GMA Infrastructure Ltd. of India submitted an unsolicited proposal to the government to further expand Mactan-Cebu International Airport over the next 50 years at a cost of P208 billion.
GMR Megawide, the operator of MCIA, prepared a 50-year masterplan where it offered to take over the airside facilities from Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority and secure the unconstrained growth of the airport by providing a capacity of at least 50 million passengers per annum.
The consortium won the public-private partnership concession to operate MCIA in December 2013, but the contract did not include the improvement, operations and maintenance of the runway and other related facilities which remained with MCIAA.
The proposal to expand MCIA over the next 50 years will be done in three phases, with the first phase involving the rehabilitation of MCIA’s existing runway and taxiways, the construction of an additional full length parallel taxiway that can act as an emergency runway and the development of additional rapid exit taxiways and runway holding positions to improve the efficiency of aircraft movements. GMR Megawide plans to construct a second parallel and independent runway which will significantly increase airside capacity under the second phase.
The consortium also offered to build a third terminal to accommodate all the additional passengers under the third phase.
GMR Megawide director Louie Ferrer said the government’s response to the proposal was “very positive,” and MCIAA recently passed a resolution pushing for the implementation of a second runway.
“Our proposal therefore dovetails perfectly with the directives of this administration,” Ferrer said.
“We submitted a highly detailed proposal tailored specifically to the needs of MCIA and we are looking forward to their response,” he said.
Ferrer said the rehabilitation of existing airside facilities together with the construction of a new runway would help alleviate congestion that could be experienced with a single runway facility.
“Our studies show that passenger traffic in Cebu will reach about 28 mppa in 2039. This is traffic similar to major Asian airports such as Singapore, New Delhi and Kuala Lumpur among others. Part of our plan is to ensure MCIA will be able to avoid airfield congestion like the kind experienced by NAIA, and continue efficient operations despite this increasing traffic,” Ferrer said.
He said passenger traffic showed incredible growth in the last two or three years.
Construction of MCIA’s Terminal 2 is currently in full swing and is expected to be operational by the end of June 2018, adding a capacity of 8 million passengers per annum to the current 4.5 MPPA capacity of Terminal 1.