By Antonio Colina
DAVAO CITY – Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (DCCCII) president Arturo Milan said the terminals of the Davao City International Airport are already “tight” with the increased number of tourists and the possible opening of international flights to three new destinations.
Francisco Bangoy International Airport, also called Davao International Airport (Image courtesy of wikipedia)
“That’s a better problem to solve rather than having a terminal without having any flights at all. That will pressure government to improve the facility of our airport,” Milan said.
The City Tourism Office recorded a total of 2,009,879 tourists last year, which increased from 1,716,224 tourists recorded in 2016.
Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the government will bid out operations and maintenance improvement of Davao airport to upgrade the airport aimed at making “Davao International Airport into a world class domestic/international hub by opening up the operations and maintenance to topnotch operators.” The cost for the upgrading is P40.6 billion.
Milan said three international flights will be established in Davao – Qatar, Hong Kong, and Japan – that will make the airport in the city busier.
The tourists of Davao City were US with 20,779; Japan, 12,510; China, 9,231; Korea,7,550; Australia, 5,929; India, 4,976; Singapore, 4,040; Canada, 4,016; UK, 3,282; Saudi Arabia, 2,371.
He said their Japanese were so aggressive at establishing Davao-Japan-Davao flights that they want to have it established before Kadayawan this year.
“We have already talked with Japanese counterparts in the tourism industry so they are very interested that soon there should be a direct flight from Davao to Japan, any destination is acceptable to them, they really wanted it before the Kadayawan,” Milan said.
He said their counterparts in Japan are eyeing to establish direct flights from Davao to either Tokyo, Haneda, Nagoya.