Boracay tourism to get even bigger
Our biggest tourist destination is about to get even bigger. The new airport in Caticlan, costing P5.3 billion, is set to be completed by yearend 2015 and that means Airbus 320s that used to land in Kalibo will use Caticlan as the gateway airport to Boracay. It is a 25 year Built, Rehabilitate, Operate and Transfer project.
The current runway of 30 meters x 950 meters will be extended to 45 meters x 1800 meters to satisfy international standards for aircrafts like the A320. Construction of the runway will be done by end of this year. Also to be constructed is a taxiway.
The new airport being constructed by San Miguel in Caticlan will also have a terminal building that can service 12 aircrafts at a time with 12 air bridges. That’s a far cry from the current terminal building that gets crowded with just two or three flights of smaller aircrafts.
The new airport will also have the latest navigational system to make it an all weather airport. It will also have night landing facilities, something most of our airports outside our major airports do not have. No more daily flight cancellations due to sunset limitation.
That probably means the Kalibo airport that now takes in direct foreign flights from South Korea and other countries will return to its previous status as a typical decrepit provincial airport. Right now, it is an embarrassing gateway to foreign tourists vacationing in Boracay.
Kalibo airport is now so congested that many foreign and domestic flights are asked to land first in Mactan and wait. The clearance to land in Kalibo is given only after earlier flights leave. Something like what is now happening in Bohol.
San Miguel’s Ramon Ang told me over lunch before the Holy Week that he has other big plans for the tourist island. He is thinking about a bridge that will connect Boracay to the mainland. I understand initial feasibility study is underway.
Just so the “boatmen” don’t lose their livelihood, RSA will help them buy vehicles that will take the tourists from Caticlan to Boracay. The bridge will also enable basic utility connections and even a facility to take the island’s sewage to the mainland for processing, sparing Boracay’s beaches from e coli infestation or worse.
San Miguel is also planning tourism facilities in Caticlan itself where the conglomerate owns about 20 hectares adjacent to the airport. More reasonably priced hotel rooms and a convention center will be constructed in the mainland and tourists may just elect to go to the Boracay beaches during the day.
I am told that San Miguel will help develop the tourism potential of mainland Aklan towns when the new Caticlan airport opens for business. An appropriate health care center equipped to handle common medical emergencies will be put up. Other services required by tourism establishments can also be provided on the mainland.
I was looking at a picture of a Boracay beach last Holy Week and it reminded me of Plaza Miranda during rush hour. I am not sure Boracay can stand more tourists pouring in, but if the pressure can be spread more evenly to cover the adjacent mainland towns, maybe. I just hope there is enough environmental planning and execution of proper rules.
Things could have moved faster with the airport if government clearances were not so cumbersome to get. Now here is a major infra project that will be delivered during P-Noy’s term… by a private sector entity and not by DOTC. If only P-Noy maximized the PPP approach early in his term as he had announced, he wouldn’t be on catch up mode now.
Incidentally, I hope P-Noy schedules a oneon-one meeting with RSA soon. The San Miguel chief has some exciting ideas that will help P-Noy deliver at least two worthwhile infra projects before he leaves office.
The major one is of course, the new international airport with four runways and modern facilities ala Changi that RSA proposes to build within 20 minutes commuting distance to Makati via an expressway he will also build. RSA still wouldn’t say the airport’s location, but I am guessing it will be in the vicinity of Naic, Cavite.
RSA thinks Sangley is too congested. He recalled talking to the JICA advisers who want Sangley as a NAIA replacement and when he asked why, he was told because it has an existing runway. RSA laughed because that existing runway should not be a major consideration for locating the new airport in Sangley.
What is needed, he explained to me, is space… lots of space for related travel developments including hotels and convention centers. He wants to build an airport with four runways to make it more future proof.
But that airport is for the long term, he told me. There is something very doable for P-Noy that can be finished to clear up NAIA congestion before 2016, if P-Noy has the political will to do it. He made a study and he actually showed me a map of the current NAIA and where a second runway can be constructed within a year with enough distance from the existing runway to comply with international regulations.
Best of all, most of the land is governmentowned already… belongs to NAIA. Some land will have to be expropriated, but if there is political will, that can be done quickly. The cost should not be too much compared to a totally new airport in Sangley that also requires a long bridge to Macapagal Avenue.
The President should hear it straight from RSA to get the flavor and the details that are difficult to convey here. I like his imagination and how he uses it to dream big.
I really think P-Noy should elicit the help of the private sector who are raring to help build needed infra. RSA and MVP are but two of those who have the willingness and means to help. It is a no-brainer to talk to them and harness their resources to build the legacy infra of P-Noy.
NAIA air con
A reader sent me this comment on my column last Monday on the “extremely warm reception” being given by NAIA management to all visitors and returning residents. This comment gives added information and perspective on the problem that P- Noy should take note and do something about.
Whatever repairs and renovations you perform on NAIA 1 will be pointless - because, the incentives of the people working there is to induce a breakdown – so that small-scale (and rush) repairs can be justified. That way, somebody makes money periodically.
This was related to me by a contractor who rebuilt/ replaced the air-conditioning system sometime in the past. They were surprised why a few months after, it broke down. So they brought in a foreign technical support engineer of the manufacturer - to determine root cause, as the equipment were still under manufacturer’s warranty. What they discovered was intentional breakdowns.
Yes, privatization of NAIA is the only way you can improve the gateway airport. Replace the entire organization. Culture of corruption cannot be weeded out - even by a competent GM (the current one isn’t).
It may be a small (against current traffic) airport, but with good management, can be world-class in experience. But that is something the people at the top of DOTC will never initiate.
Another reader comment
Here is another reader comment on the quality of our infrastructure… rather, lack of it.
Our airports are not just an embarrassment but a depressing icon of Filipino ineptitude. I just left Manila thru our famous or infamous T1 for Changi airport and it was very emotional for me.
The departure area was pure chaos, local and foreigners alike fanning themselves with whatever they can find to create some pockets of air. There were queues all over the place. Luggage strewn here and there. There were screaming children uncomfortable with the heat.
The whole departure area looks like a refugee camp. This was April 10 in the morning, not so extraordinary day by anybody’s standards. I can only imagine what happens during the holiday season...
And not just that, the roads in Indonesia alone is something to cry for. Why do our overpasses have uneven seams? Parang alon, may gap pa ang sections ng overlay. Sa Jakarta, seamless ang kalye, you don’t get jolts when driving. We export professionals like engineers to Indonesia but why can’t we make the same roads?
We have manholes that stick out like tree stumps on the road. I almost lost my whole underchassis driving on top of these manholes. Or manholes that are like deep potholes.
I supply machineries to my customers and it brings me a lot of joy to hear these machines humming and working to my customer’s satisfaction. Why can’t these suppliers and contractors find joy in serving their countrymen by giving them what their taxes paid for?
Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco