With US
air carrier Delta Airlines officially moved its operation to 12-year-old
terminal, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 become fully
operational started August 1. Delta Airlines will arrive and depart from NAIA 3
using the southern portion of the 1.2 kilometer long terminal.
The NAIA
Terminal 3 project was initiated in 1997 by the Japanese construction firm
Takenaka Corporation, covering the
multi-million dollar terminal. It is supposed to be fully operational by 2002
but because of a legal conflict between the Philippines International Airport
Terminals Co. Inc and the government arose, the project was delayed. The
project was built to minimize the passenger of
NAIA terminal 1 which had exceeded its capacity of accommodating almost
4.5 million passengers yearly.
With the
$40 million works completed by Takenaka, all 18 boarding gates are now working,
the automated baggage handling system is up and running, all seven baggage
carousels are now in service and all air conditioners are fully active.
It was
Transportation Secretary Emilio Abaya, who headed the simple the ceremonies
signaling Delta’s official commencement of Terminal 3 full operation. Octavio
Lina, who is the terminal 3 manager said that the move of the five
international air carriers, which services 3 to 4.5 million passengers each
year has helped reduce the overcrowding at the NAIA1.
NAIA 3
was built with a design capacity of 13 million international passengers
annually. Preceding to the move of the five international air
carriers, the NAIA 3 recorded 2 million international passengers serviced by
three airline companies such as Cebu Pacific, All Nippon Airways and Air
Asia. When all five air carriers get to move to the newer terminal,
international passengers are expected to
rise to 5.5 million every year.
KLM
is the next air carrier to move to NAIA 3 disclosed that the next air carrier
to move to NAIA 3 will have its full operations on August
4. On August 15, Emirates Airlines will begin its operation at the
NAIA 3 while the Singapore Airlines to move its operations on September
1. Cathay Pacific, which has four daily flights, is scheduled to
move to NAIA 3 also in September although the airline management has not yet
confirmed its operating schedule.
