Starting next month, four new international services will be available at the Philippines’s second largest gateway, Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA).
On March 15, Philippine Airlines will commence its thrice-weekly flights from Cebu to Los Angeles. Taiwan-based EVA Air will start its daily Cebu-Taipei-Cebu service on March 27.
Chinese carrier XiamenAir’s direct flights from Xiamen to Cebu will be offered thrice weekly starting March 28, while Emirates’ daily Dubai-Cebu-Clark circular service will be available daily beginning March 30.
“Providing airline and route innovations for the travelling public are keystones of MCIA’s transformation,” GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC) president Louie Ferrer said in a statement. GMCAC has won the bid to renovate and modernize MCIA.
“Many of these flights are a first for Cebu, which will draw inbound tourism and give strong support for export services,” Ferrer noted, adding that “growth in passenger volume opens greater opportunities in commerce and tourism.”
In the area of cargo, the latest available data from MCIA Authority showed that volume increased 55.5% in the first 10 months of 2015 to 73.479 million kilograms from 47.147 million kilograms year-on-year.
GMCAC took over MCIA in November 2014 and will operate the airport for 25 years. The concession covers renovation of Terminal 1 as well as the design, financing, construction and operation of a second terminal to accommodate rising passenger traffic.
GMCAC said it has so far spent a total of US$15 million or about P700 million on Terminal 1 renovations.
