Newly renovated Mactan airport to house more international flights
The newly renovated Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) will house more international flights going to Los Angeles, Taipei, Ziamen, and Dubai starting this month.
On March 27, EVA Air will inaugurate its Cebu-Taipei flight, while Xiamen Air will launch its Cebu-Xiamen international flight the day after that. Then on March 30, Emirates will launch its Dubai- Cebu, Cebu- Clark, and ClarkDubai flights.
At the start of the week, Philippine Airlines launched its Los Angeles-Cebu flight and will operate the route three times a week (Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday).
Eva Air will have a daily flight going to and from Taipei; Xiamen Air will have it three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Saturday); and Emirates will operate its Cebu-Dubai route it on a “daily circular service.”
“Providing airline and route in- novations for the travelling public are keystones of MCIA’s transformation. Many of these flights are a first for Cebu, which will draw inbound tourism and give strong support for export services,” said GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corporation (GMCAC) president Louie Ferrer.
GMCAC, the airport’s private operator, also reported Wednesday night that MCIA has once again been recognized as one of the world’s most outstanding Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project.
MCIA, the country’s first airport PPP project and second largest international gateway in the Philippines, was named Best Transport Deal for Asia Pacific in the 2015 Partnership Finance International (PFI) Awards.
PFI is part of the Thomson Reuters Awards for Excellence, which recognizes corporate and individual successes in the global financial industry. Winners were announced December of last year.
“It is a great privilege to be recog- nized by an institution such as Partnership Finance International,” said Oliver Tan, Director of GMCAC.
“From a pure construction firm, Megawide is transforming into a diverse engineering and infrastructure company. Projects such as MCIA fit into our diversification program,” he added.
Tan also emphasized that this kind of award create a positive impression to foreign investors and visitors.
“These awards create a positive investor climate for MCIA. They are good indicators that the project is delivering tangible results. They also remind us that our task is more than building world class facilities – we are building a venue for economic growth in the region,” he further said.
MCIA has a 25- year concession agreement that involves the renovation of the Terminal 1 as well as the design, financing, construction and operation of a second terminal to accommodate the continually increasing passenger traffic.
GMCAC had so far spent a total of US$15 million or about 700 million on Terminal 1 renovations.
Project funding for MCIA was sealed in 2014 through a consortium of the country’s leading banks led by BDO Capital and Investment Corporation, and the Asian Development Bank.