Macapagal Int’l Airport is Air Macau’s new destination

The Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA), formerly named Clark International Airport (CIA), will be a new point of destination of Air Macau, the designated flag carrier of Macau Special Administrative Region (Macau SAR), China.

This was disclosed by Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez after the recent signing of the amendment to the air agreement between the Philippines and Macau SAR hosted by the Clark Development Corporation (CDC) in Clark, Pampanga.

Alvarez said Macau was asking for two additional point of destinations, “Instead of giving them two, we agreed to grant them three additional point of destinations with specific mention of DMIA as one of them.”

“We also agreed to increase seat capacity from 550 seats per week to 850 seats. However, the additional 300 seats will be utilized for destinations other than Metro Manila,” Alvarez said.

He said this would be for international passenger and cargo operations as well as pure cargo operation only.

“This we believe is our best effort to complement the strides of Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) towards the full-development of DMIA,” Alvarez emphasized.

He added, “this could jumpstart the development of DMIA because Air Macau will be flying in international passengers and cargoes.”

Before the amendment to the air agreement, Air Macau only had scheduled flights to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). Now, they will fly in to the DMIA and two other points of destinations in the country, identified in the future.

“In return, the Philippines got a multiple carrier designations plus two beyond destination points for passengers and cargo operations and pure cargo operation and an additional 300 seat capacity,” he said.

For the year 2000, incoming and outgoing passenger traffic of the NAIA-Macau route reached 22,768 passengers. For the first semester of 2001, passenger traffic totaled to about 13,447.

There are also chartered flights from Macau to Laoag International Airport and vice-versa with passenger traffic of about 600 passengers per week.

As this developed, Alvarez reiterated that the DOTC is throwing its full support to the BCDA, the agency that is primarily tasked to develop DMIA.