Still the best airport

Routes Asia 2023 Awards recently named the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) as Asia's Best Airport in Airport and Destination Marketing in the “Under 5 million Passenger Category”. The awarding ceremony was held earlier this week in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

According to a report by The FREEMAN, the award was given to MCIA for its "two-pronged approach to route development --airline marketing to create supply, and destination marketing to ensure the sustainability of its airline partners' presence and address the demand for air services."

In the same report, MCIA Authority general manager and chief executive officer Julius Neri Jr. recognized the partnership between the MCIAA and GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC), the MCIA terminal operator, as key to the success of the airport.

The award is much deserved. Since 2019 when I had the chance to travel outside the country and use the new international terminal, I have been singing praises for our airport both in the areas of architectural design as well as in its customer service flow process.

In my November 9, 2019 column, I likewise mentioned the then latest renovations at the Terminal 1 (domestic terminal) which had also raised further the profile of the MCIA whose Terminal 2 (international terminal) had already earned a lot of praises.

These award-winning innovations, I think, came to fruition because of the partnership of Megawide Corp. with India's GMR Group which is dubbed as the second largest airport operator in the world. The GMR Group is known for its excellent track record of transforming airports into “exciting, efficient award winning airports in India and overseas.”

In September last year, it was announced that the GMR Group was divesting their stakes in the MCIA to pave the way for Aboitiz InfraCapital, Inc. (AIC) to take over the operation of the airport terminals. It was reported in the Business World Online that GMR will continue to provide support as the technical services provider. Thus, it’s good to know that even with the change in management, the factors and elements that made MCIA one of the best airports in Asia have remained intact.

I’ve set foot at impressive terminals around the world including those in Singapore (Changi), Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo (Narita), and Munich, and I can say with confidence that our MCIA terminals, though small in comparison to these larger airports, can compete with top terminals in the world.

That is because, aside from its exterior and interior design, the MCIA terminals maintain a very important design attribute of an airport terminal called “wayfinding”. There are enough cues and aids to help a traveller find his way around the terminal building. “Cues to and placement of services and facilities have a direct impact on the airport’s capacity to handle passenger movement,” I wrote in 2019.

Contrast this to our flagship airport terminals in the national capital. It’s difficult to get around NAIA’s terminals. The moment you deplane and step into the arrival area, you can feel the tension or worries owing to the lack of comfortable areas where passengers waiting for their ride can stay, as well as lack of cues that help passengers exit the terminal toward their ultimate destination hassle-free.

In 2019 I wrote (and this is still true today) that upon arriving at our Cebu airport terminal (domestic or international), a traveller is greeted with bright, comfortable lighting, “enough to ease any pre-travel jitters and to guide one’s way to the cues and signs in the building.”

“The direction and location signs are not cluttered and are immediately recognizable, yet these still match with the overall interior design of the building. There are also what we call ‘reassurance signs’ or similar signs along the way to reassure users that they are headed in the right direction.”

You immediately feel you are in a good place when upon arriving at any of its airports or sea ports you can basically go on your own without any hassle. I think that is the experience of many travellers in our airport in Cebu (but unfortunately not the reality at the Cebu pier where upon exiting the pier area one gets “harassed” by hustlers who pretend to be taxi drivers).

There is still a big room for improvement, though, in our airport in Cebu. Providing access to an efficient mass transport system is one.