Kopi Talk Airports, Tourism

MANILA, Philippines - The relationship among airports, tourism, and business is so obvious that it needs no elaboration. I, therefore, welcome the Department of Transportation and Communication actions to improve the operational efficiencies of various airports, especially the NAIA and its three terminals. I wrote some months ago about my own experience of a delayed flight to Cebu because of NAIA's runway congestion. Secretary Mar Roxas said that the commercial airlines operating in NAIA have doubled to 119 compared to only 62 in 2008. That year there were only 18 million passengers, but last year the figure increased to 30 million passengers. Aircraft movements or takeoffs and landings were up from 171 in 2006 to 255 in 2011. NAIA's runways can only accomodate an average of 36 takeoffs and landings per hour, but actual scheduled commercial and general civil aviation flights went up to 50 flights per hour, which resulted in flight delays. Based on discussions with airlines, DOTC came up with short-term and long-term solutions: First, NAIA, according to Sec Roxas, will be a "Captains runway." Meaning only Pilot Captains can take off or land in the airport. In short, no First Officers are allowed such privilege in the course of their training to be familiar with NAIA runways. Second, the prospective transfer of night flights to airports with night landing facilities, i.e., Cebu, Davao, Bacolod, Kalibo, Tacloban, Puerto Princesa, General Santos, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, and Laoag. Third, 14 more provincial airports will be rated for night flights... They are Dumaguete, Tagbilaran, and Roxas in the Visayas; Tuguegarao, Legaspi, Naga, San Jose (Mindoro) in Luzon, and Busuanga in Palawan. In Mindanao, Butuan, Ozamis, Cotabato, Dipolog, Pagadian, and Surigao. The other indirect solution could be to operate the key international airports on a 24/7 standard, so that there will be 3 shifts of personnel every day, especially in Customs, Immigration, and Quarantine. The above measures are indeed welcome. However, it goes without further comment that the airports must have the required minimum equipment and properly trained personnel in order to have an efficient, reliable service. We must make sure that the blackout which happened at the Iloilo airport recently will never happen again. It was obvious that the relatively new Iloilo facility which cost R8.7 billion did not have the necessary automatic standby power when the black out occurred. The incident stranded 1,000+ passengers at the airport... not counting those whose flights were diverted to other airports like Cebu. I hope the incident will not delay further our aviation Industry's reclassification to first category in the international classification. As a final suggestion, regular training should be implemented and discipline should be imposed. The job of an airport supervisor/manager is like that of a hotel executive... He/she should be inspecting the facilities and the personnel every day to make sure that the SOP requirements are thoroughly followed. I say this because I have seen these kinds of improvement programs which have failed because of the attitude of some government employees who believe that government owes them a favor when they do their jobs with a "Puwede na ito sir" attitude... "Puwede na" is not good enough, such job should be excellent... rene.espina@hotmail.com