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MANILA, Philippines - As the summer travel season peaks, the government wants airlines to help decongest Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and minimize flight delays by cutting down on the number of scheduled flights.
Transport Secretary Manuel Roxas said the runway at NAIA has to deal with 43 flights an hour, way above its capacity of only 36.
He said the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) will ask the airlines to voluntarily reduce their flights.
“We will first request them but if they don’t heed our request then the government would have to step in and force them to reduce their flights. It is false advertising on their part if they say that this particular flight will leave at this hour but it won’t. They themselves are aware of the long queue at the runway,” Roxas said.
“We are now in consultation with the CAAP, MIAA and the airlines on this problem,” he said, referring to the two state-run firms, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines and the Manila International Airport Authority.
Roxas said the government would have to resort to flight reductions since NAIA no longer has extra space within which to build another runway.
Expropriating private land surrounding the three NAIA terminals also would cost more and would take longer than expanding existing facilities such as the Clark International Airport, he said.
“President Aquino has looked at a study several months ago. He said that instead of spending much to reclaim a land it would be better to transfer to Clark because the facility is already there, having two runways,” Roxas said.
Shifting traffic to Clark however "can't happen if there is no infrastructure," he said, adding that the North Rail is the "missing link to transport passengers from Metro Manila all the way to Clark."
The DOTC earlier dropped the original plan for the North Rail, pushing instead for revisions to the contract.
“We are now reviewing the possibility if we can use other alignment. Perhaps we can use the NLEX alignment,” Roxas said, referring to the North Luzon Expressway.
Under the revised plan, the North Rail would connect the Makati Central Business District to Caloocan, as well as Mabalacat town in Pampanga to Clark.
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