Sangley to be opened first for cargo, general aviation
Transportation officials on Tuesday said Sangley airport will be open for turboprop cargo and general aviation operations that will help in decongesting the Ninoy Aquino International Aiport (NAIA).
They said the P486.07 billion Sangley project is 96 percent complete. four months after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered them to immediately finish the airport so that it can help in decongesting the NAIA.
During the operational dry run, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said decreasing the number of cargo freights in NAIA will be a big help in widening the country’s premier airport.
“Logically, if you decrease the number of airplanes from one airport and move it to another place, it will be wider in the previous airport right? That’s why we are saying, the cargo will operate here (Sangley) instead of NAIA,” Tugade said in a press briefing.
Tugade said products being exported and imported in the economic zones and other places around Cavite province can go in Sangley airport instead of NAIA.
He added removing general aviation in NAIA and placing it in Sangley can also help in the decongestion.
“On a general frame is the help and assist development between NAIA and Sangley,” he said.
The transportation secretary said cargo operations are for “short-term only”.
“Remember there are expansion probabilities on the immediate run. If you can see on the part of the shore, once it’s clean up… our runway will widen. Here, the housing here, once the governor relocate them, it will widen also,” Tugade said.
“Once the airport widens and the number of airplanes that will go here increase, NAIA will become spacious,” he said.
According to Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines Director General Jim Sydiongco, Sangley airport’s runway length and width including its load bearing strength can accommodate an Airbus320.
“But for now, if you see the line of the structure, it should be from here up to the end (and) should be clean. That is still our big project. So for the meantime, we allow turboprop operation whether its 60-65 tons… there are a lot of turboprop operation and passenger so we can encourage them to operate here in Sangley,” Sydiongco said.
Once the airport opens on November, Sydiongco said it will be operational from sunrise to sunset.
“The airport's runway will serve as the third runway of NAIA with a capacity of 20 movements per hour, landing and takeoff,” he said.
Sydiongco said runway lights will be completed this December.
For the passenger terminal, the 750 square meters can accommodate around 160 passengers and is equipped with CCTV, X-rays, baggage handling and weight conveyor.
He added the parking area can also accommodate around 120 vehicles. There are also two 1,750 sqm hangers inside the airport with a vacant space of 3,500 sqm.
Shoreline protection are also provided at both ends of runway.
According to Tugade, the vacant space may be used for construction of new hangar or expansion of the passenger terminal.
“If there is a need, that vacant space will occupy the immediate expansion,” he said.
For the transportation going to Sangley airport from Manila, Tugade said a ferry service and the Premium Point-to-Point (P2P) bus will be used to reach the airport.
“On the immediate, it appears we can do right now on the ferry and P2P,” he said.
The ferry service from Manila Bay to the ferry terminal that will be temporarily built inside the former military base camp will take 15 to 20 minutes while the bus service will take two hours from Pasay City to the airport.
A military official said there will be no security problems on the construction of the ferry terminal as they addressed it during their meetings with DoTR.
Tugade is also eyeing the extension from Cavitex to the airport and road network with the help of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
“DPWH already put P2 billion for this road structure project,” Tugade said.
“At the end it will be a network of in and out,” he added.
An ATR 72-500 freighter from Cebu Pacific operated by CebGo arrived at the airport as part of the dry-run. Ella Dionisio/DMS
