With the recent shake-up at the Department of Transportation (DOTr), Camarines Sur (CamSur) Governor LRay Villafuerte is making a last-minute appeal to newly named Transport Acting Secretary Giovanni Lopez to put on hold the scheduled cancellation by next month of Manila-Naga turboprop flights until such time that the DOTr will have undertaken its previously committed expansion of the Naga Airport so its runway can accommodate bigger aircraft possibly for both domestic and international travel.
President of the National Unity Party (NUP) and three-term congressman prior to his comeback as CamSur governor, Villafuerte made his appeal to Lopez as low-cost airline Cebu Pacific announced recently the transfer by Oct. 26 of certain turboprop flights from the Naga airport to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and vice versa to the new route of Naga to the Clark International Airport (CRK) in Pampanga and vice versa.
This is in compliance with Resolution No. 2024-02 on the phased relocation of NAIA turboprop operations that was issued in December 2024 by the DOTr-led Manila Slot Coordination Committee (MSCC), as a way to decongest NAIA, accommodate more passengers and maximize the use of secondary airports like the CRK.
The Naga runway upgrade plan is to extend its 1.3-kilometer (km) landing strip to 2 km so it can take in bigger aircraft such as the Airbus A320, whose passenger capacity is double that of small turbo-prop planes like the Bombardier Q400 that now land at the Naga Airport.
The MSCC comprises the DOTr Undersecretary for Aviation and Airports; the heads of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) and Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP); and the general manager of the New NAIA Infra Corp. (NNIC), which is the consortium led by San Miguel Holdings Corp. (SMHC) that took over control of the NAIA following its privatization in September 2024.
“On behalf of the people of our province, I am making this appeal to newly-named DOTr Acting Secretary Lopez to hold in abeyance the scheduled transfer this October of certain turboprop aircraft operations on the NAIA-Naga route to the CRK until such time that the DOTr can undertake the long-planned expansion of the Naga City Airport so its runway can accommodate bigger passenger planes or jets,” Villafuerte said.
“Given that the turboprop aircraft are the only ones used by Cebu Pacific for commercial flights in secondary airports like the one in Naga, the relocation to the CRK in Pampanga of propeller-driven small planes bound for or leaving the Naga airport will severely hurt our local tourism and inconvenience air travelers and tourists going to and from CamSur and the rest of the Bicol region,” he added.
During his Commission on Appointments (CA) hearing last June on his then-posting as DOTr chief, Vivencio Dizon gave his full backing to the long-planned upgrade of the Naga Airport and assured Villafuerte, who was then CA majority leader, that the expansion of this airport’s runway will begin this September.
Last weekend, however, President Marcos named Dizon as the new Secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in place of Manuel Bonoan, who had resigned, and picked DOTr undersecretary Lopez as acting transport secretary.
“We are hoping that Secretary Lopez will see it fit to continue with the Naga Airport modernization this September, as committed by his predecessor, and to set aside the MSCC order leading to the transfer of commercial flights to the Naga-CRK route until the DOTr will have completed the long-planned runway expansion of the Naga Airport, so it can accommodate bigger passenger aircraft like the Airbus 320 jets,” Villafuerte said.
The Naga runway upgrade plan is to extend its 1.3-kilometer (km) landing strip to 2 km so it can take in bigger aircraft such as the Airbus A320, whose passenger capacity is double that of small turbo-prop planes like the Bombardier Q400 that now land at the Naga Airport.
“I am making this appeal to newly-named DOTr Acting Secretary Lopez to hold in abeyance the scheduled transfer this October of certain turboprop aircraft operations on the NAIA-Naga route to the CRK.”
Depending on the plane size, Bombardiers or ATRs can accommodate 50-90 passengers, while Airbus jets can accommodate 180 to 363 passengers.
Once the Naga airport is upgraded, Villafuerte expects a dramatic increase in foreign and local visitor arrivals as a longer runway that will have enough room for jets will spur more routes and new destinations to be served by the Naga Airport, including the possibility of direct international flights for tourists and businesspersons.
“The options for travellers or tourists under the MSCC turboprop phaseout plan—traveling by plane via Clark to Naga with a land trip from Manila to Pampanga or taking a single but long commute by land from Manila to Naga—may seem like a choice between a rock and a hard place, and would naturally hurt tourism in the region, especially in our province of CamSur that is the leading tourist destination and tourism revenue earner in Bicol,” Villafuerte said.
“The land transfers will mean far longer travel time and additional transport expenses for those wishing to go to Naga and CamSur,” he said.
“Or tourists may just opt to go to Legazpi instead or to other places outside the national capital that have direct flights taking off from the NAIA,” he said. “This will severely hurt the tourism industry not only in CamSur but for the entire Bicol as well, considering that our province is the biggest tourism revenue earner in the region.”
Villafuerte said that the airport upgrade in Naga “should have happened yesterday, given that the expansion of the airport runway has been in the pipeline on the watch of then-DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade under the previous Duterte Administration and even at the start of ex-Secretary Jaime Bautista’s term as transport secretary under the Marcos presidency.
Cebu Pacific flies out of the NAIA Terminal 2 to airfields in Busuanga, Caticlan, Cebu, Legazpi, Masbate, San Jose, Siargao, Surigao and Naga.
In an Aug. 28 statement, Cebu Pacific said that certain Naga and San Jose flights to and from Manila will relocate to the CRK, beginning Oct. 26.
