12 BUSINESS NEWS PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY July 16 - 31 , 2018
New Mactan airport to hit 11.2M passengers by yearend
GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corp . ( GMCAC ), operator of Mactan Cebu International Airport ( MCIA ), is optimistic to hit its projected 11.2 million passenger traffic this year .
GMCAC reported MCIA handled 5.76 million passengers in the first half of the year , a 12.5 percent yearon-year increase compared to 5.12 million in 2017 . Air traffic movement also grew 12.86 percent year-on-year to 49,843 flights this year from 44,165 flights last year .
From January to June , MCIA recorded 3.76 million domestic passengers while international traffic totaled 1.89 million passengers which grew by 10.19 percent and 17.54 percent , respectively .
“ We closed the mid-year with a remarkable performance and we are positive to hit the projected 11.2 million passenger traffic this year especially now that we have opened Terminal 2 ,” said Louie Ferrer , GMCAC president .
Peak domestic passenger traffic was recorded in May with 760,000 passengers , while peak international traffic was recorded during the months of January , February , May and June with a monthly average of 320,000 passengers .
GMCAC said MCIA recorded a total of 37,720 domestic flights , up 12.25 percent from 33,603 in 2017 . International flights rose14.78 percent to 12,123 flights from 10,562 of last year ’ s first half .
Peak air traffic movement was recorded in May with 6,642 domestic flights and 2,101 international flights .
Spanning 65,500 square meters , the newly-opened Terminal 2 is dedicated to serve international flights and can accommodate 4.5 million passengers , GMCAC said . The new facility increased MCIA ’ s current passenger capacity to a minimum of 12.5 million passengers per annum .
The company noted robust development at MCIA in terms of connectivity as both local and foreign carriers increased their flight frequencies and mounted more flights out of Cebu .
Ferrer said this remarkable growth is due to GMCAC ’ s initiatives to add more connections to local regions in the country and to other Southeast Asian destinations .
Philippines AirAsia launched three new routes out of MCIA to Chinese destinations – Hangzhou , Shenzhen , and Shanghai . It likewise added a thrice-weekly flight to Clark in May .
Philippine Airlines subsidiary PAL Express resumed PAL ’ s Cebu-Chengdu service in May 8 and mounted charter flights to Hangzhou and Nanjing in July .
Cebu Pacific has started charter services as well to two Chinese destinations , Shanghai and Beijing , with three and two weekly flights , respectively .
Foreign carriers mounted new routes from Cebu Airport including Beijing-based airline Okay Airways , China Eastern Airlines and Royal Air Charter Service Inc .
Ferrer said the increase in flight frequencies and the addition of new routes especially to China show there is growing demand from the Chinese market for alternative travel destination and Cebu has become that top choice for them .
“ We constantly explore new markets that have a potential to expand the connectivity of Cebu to other countries particularly North America , Europe , Australia , and other Asian countries ,” said Ferrer .
MCIA , the second largest airport
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Open Letter from the organizers of Taste of Manila Taste of Manila 2018 Canceled Following Organizers ’ ‘ Very Difficult Decision ’
With a heavy heart , the organizers of the Taste of Manila have made the difficult decision to cancel this year ’ s edition of the popular street festival after much consideration following numerous dialogues with the City of Toronto and festival stakeholders .
This year ’ s TASTE OF MANILA was due to be held on Saturday , August 18th and Sunday , August 19th on Bathurst St . ( corner Wilson Ave . up to Laurelcrest Ave .), Toronto , Ontario . It would have been its fifth year in our commitment to give honour to the Filipinos in Canada .
The Taste of Manila originally began in 2014 and the organizers have opted for it to become an annual event
The event typified a Filipino town fiesta with non-stop Filipino entertainment and endless arrays of Filipino street food and ethnic cuisine . Most of all , it has become a meeting place for long-lost friends and families . They came in droves along the TTC routes , in rented tourist buses , in carpools , they flew in from abroad , and they hopped off the trains at Union Station . Taste of Manila was reminiscent of a “ balikbayan ” coming home .
Arriving at the decision to cancel the festival was a most difficult one . The costs of staging it have become unbearable as the Taste of Manila remains grant-free to this day . City services and basic expenses continued to rise while our income had remained the same .
Our funding was solely dependent on fees collected from sponsors , food vendors and exhibitors that rent spaces inside the festival ground . We also understand that festivals are important for the local economy and Taste of Manila was beneficial to the Filipino business community and the City of North York .
It has been a known fact that Filipino establishments at Wilson and Bathurst areas have prospered in leaps and bounds since the staging of Taste of Manila . In all humility , our festival has been successfully duplicated in cities in Canada and the USA , yet it remains as the largest in Filipino-Canadian history , stretching 1.7 kilometres of public street . It also earned the reputation as one of the safest festivals in Toronto despite the shocking number of attendees every year .
Festival promotions also paved the way for business establishments in Wilson and Bathurst to flourish . Most notable of all , we were successful in putting Little Manila ( Bathurst- Wilson ) on the global map and under the radar of mainstream media and the Canadian government . The Filipinos have truly arrived .
Our goal for the future includes finding a new permanent home for Taste of Manila which will provide a win-win situation for both the organization – its stakeholders ( food vendors , business exhibitors and sponsors ) - and the business community . Details of a new location for the festival will be released soon .
We would like to apologize to all especially those who are coming from out-of-town and have already made flight and hotel accommodations . We are sorry for any disappointment caused by our decision , especially to our sponsors and vendors . We will be giving a full refund to those who have already paid .
We want to thank the members of the public , volunteer performers , event staff , vendors , sponsors , suppliers , government partners , and the Filipino community . We sincerely appreciate your support and participation over the last four years to create a truly special festival .
As we look forward to the next festival in 2019 , we acknowledge that this experience can show us greater opportunities for growth and may form the foundation for a very successful event in the future - no matter how painful the lessons may be . Sincerely , BOARD OF DIRECTORS PHILIPPINE CULTURAL COMMU- NITY CENTRE ( PCCC )