CEBU CITY – Air and passenger traffic at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) are slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels.
Data from the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) showed that MCIA accommodated approximately 5.6 million passengers in 2022, 409 percent higher compared to 2021 when MCIA had just one million passengers.
Domestic passengers still account for most of MCIA’s foot traffic at 4,870,471 in 2022. In 2021, there were only 46,501 international passengers at MCIA but this increased to 689,787 in 2022.
The increase of foot traffic was attributed to the easing of Covid-19 restrictions.
MCIA also posted a triple-digit or 260 percent increase in the number of flights with a total of 54,997 going in and out in 2022, of which 48,470 are domestic, compared to the 15,287 in 2021.
Global travel data provider OAG reported that as of February, MCIA serves at least eight international routes, with Taiwan as its latest addition. The country’s second busiest airport has 26 routes covering domestic destinations and is the hub of 19 local and international airline companies.
MCIA was recently named the best airport under the Five Million Passengers Category during the recent Routes Awards.
In a case study published by Routes Daily newsletter, executives from the GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC) revealed that the airport is set to reopen more destinations abroad.
“We closed 2022 with about half of our destinations reopened, but the number of pre-pandemic international passengers was lower by 64 percent,” Aines Librodo, head of the GMCAC airline marketing and tourism development.