New NAIA Runway Construction Begins Next Month

The Philippine government is planning to spend at least P2 billion to construct an alternative runway parallel to the existing primary runway at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in an effort to ease growing congestion at the country's main international gateway.

Image Source: GMA Network
According to Transportation Secretary Joseph Abaya, the first phase of the project will be the construction of a 2.1 kilometer runway that will run parallel to the existing runway 06/24. "The first phase is P2 billion but we have to verify that," said Abaya. "The new runway could allow Airbus A320 to land."

Before the project proceeds, the government is planning to conduct a study of the proposed runway as nearly 600 houses in the Merville Subdivision adjacent to the 400-hectare NAIA complex could be displaced. "Our biggest challenge is the 600 households that will be affected," said Abaya. "We're still verifying if they are informal settlers or private owners. I think at the end of the day that's going to be the biggest challenge."

The Department of Transportation and Communications will be seeking the assistance of the Department of Public Works and Highways as well as the National Housing Authority as the project will involve the expropriation of land and relocation of families that will be displaced. Abaya says that the government plans to finance their relocation but the DOTC will require the assistance of other government agencies as they are not experts in relocation.

Abaya added that there is also concern that the International Civil Aviation Organization may withdraw the certification of the existing runway if a new runway is constructed beside it. "They are saying that when you have a precision landing certified runway and if you construct a new runway beside it, the existing certification will be cancelled," said Abaya. "We don't want this to happen." The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines has been tasked with coordinating with the ICAO to ensure that the certification of the existing runway is not compromised.

Diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corporation recently proposed the idea of constructing a new runway as a means to address congestion at Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The additional runway could increase the number of landings and take offs at the airport from the existing 40 per hour to approximately 60 or 70. A report released by GMA network indicated that the construction of the new runway will start next month. 

6 comments:

  1. With the houses and businesses that have to be demolished to make way for this runway, it will take a long time to complete. It looks like the government's planning is as bad as the people it appoints to run the DOTC and the Manila International Airport!
    That is, unless some people are planning to profit from the runway construction like they did with Terminal 3 and the renovations at Terminal 1...

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  2. Why spend again billions of dollars to upgrade and build parallel runway for NAIA with all this talk of building a new airport as well?Is there plenty of cutbacks to be made in upgrading and refurbishing than building a newer airport? NAIA is not only the worst airport in the world but also the most restricted so get your acts together and get on with building that much needed, better and bigger airport before it becomes another case of boom or bust. Wanna bet?

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  3. I think the idea is really addressing the immediete concern of a daily air traffic congestion with much less time table, effort of concerning parties and money than placing a new airport that may take years to build while our main aviation gateway continue to incur delays fuel loses for planes and inconvinince for moving people due to delays and and so the business industry coming in and out of NAIA . Of course a newer and modern airport as being proposed by SMC is a very positve and sounding idea for the philippines... but it maybe wiser to utilize and maximize NAIA capabilities before embarking on the next project.

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    1. I think the idea is to construct a parallel runway to 06/24 at NAIA is good and worthy, for the mean time. It will definitely lessen the delays in both take-offs and landings of the planes, thereby lessening pollution as well. We will be able to increase the airport capacity. And so I think we should push thru with it...AND at the same time push through with the plans to build another airport that has the necessary space and land area where there is growth for expansion. Whether that will be the one proposed by San Miguel...or the one proposed in Sangley Point, Cavite. I think we Filipinos should get our acts together here and WORK AS A TEAM. We should think not only for ourselves, how we will gain from this (corruption), but for our children and our children's children. Our country and our future is at stake here. Wag tayo maging corrupt o walang pakialam. I pray to the Almighty God that all these plans will be a reality soon, coz our present NAIA Airport can only accommodate so much. - Capt V

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  4. in the first place, why was this not thought of when naia was constructed decades ago? and why did the local governments around the airport aloud the mushrooming of residential areas? another case of filipino dumbness! just like the new subic-clark-tarlac hiways, in a few years time, there will be no room to expand it because the side streets would already be congested by office buildings and subdivisions.

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  5. terminal 2 needs expansion or renovation#naia2 expansion


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