MCIA passenger traffic up 12% to 7.62 million
International passengers at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport just keep building up, thanks to the strong traffic following the new terminal opening last July.
In July alone, when all international passengers started flying to and out of MCIA's Terminal 2, international passenger count jump 172% to 810,371 month on month, official data obtained by The FREEMAN showed.
That's a big rise from 298,040 in June.
In August, international passengers rose further by 3% to 836,418.
From January to August this year, passenger traffic -- both domestic and international -- rose by 12% to 7.62 million from 6.81 million last year.
During the period, international passengers increased to 2.57 million, up 21% from 2.12 last year.
While domestic passenger count totaled 5.04 million, up 8% from 4.69 million.
Edgar Saavedra, CEO of Megawide Construction, the Filipino firm in consortium airport operator GMRMegawide, earlier said growth prospects continue to be promising with the addition of more routes from MCIA moving forward.
He noted that traveling via Cebu to other tourist destinations in Visayas and Mindanao only takes about 30 minutes compared to the almost one hour travel time from Manila.
“The location of Cebu provides added convenience for travelers going to these areas. Cebu is the ideal starting point," he had said.
To date, MCIA serves 34 domestic and 24 international destinations with 26 airline partners.
Before Terminal 2 started operating commercially last July, domestic passengers accounted for over 60% percent of MCIA's traffic while international passengers accounted for remaining.
But as the new modern terminal attracts more international routes, traffic from international flights significantly overtaken that from domestic in July and August alone.
Cebu has positioned itself as the second major gateway to the Philippines, adding two million annual international passengers over the past four years, aviation think tank CAPA Centre for Aviation had said in an analysis note.
"Manila is still much larger and has seven times the international passenger traffic. However, MactanCebu will gradually close the gap with Manila because it has invested in the capacity to support growth, whereas Manila remains constrained," CAPA said.