Naia taxiway extension in the works

Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas

The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) will soon be able to accommodate more domestic and international flights with the planned construction of an additional “rapid-exit taxiway.”

According to Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas, the construction of a 1-kilometer rapid-exit taxiway will begin in February next year and is expected to decongest and maximize the capacity of the Naia complex.

The entire project will cost P300 million and will take a year to construct, said Roxas.

Rapid-exit taxiways allow aircraft to vacate the runway at higher speeds, permitting another to land or depart in a shorter space of time.

To date, the intersecting design of the Naia runways limits its capacity to only 36 events, either a landing or takeoff, for every hour.

More flights

“Each event requires at least one minute and 40 seconds to exit the runway for clearance,” Roxas said at a recent Naia press briefing.

“With the construction of the additional rapid-exit taxiway, we can reach 60 events per hour,” he said.

So, instead of the usual one minute and 40 seconds, with the rapid-exit taxiway, an event would only take one minute to use the runway.

The new addition will also prevent flight delays, allowing passengers to depart or arrive as scheduled, Roxas said.

“This is one of the long-term solutions of the DOTC to the perennial problem of congestion at the Naia,” he said.

“We are building a 1-kilometer long new runway parallel to the existing ones. But it will take at least a year to construct because construction can only be done three hours a day, from 2 to 5 a.m. when the runway is not being used,” Roxas explained.

Night vision

Apart from the rapid-exit taxiway, Roxas earlier also disclosed plans to equip provincial airports with a technology that would enable them to operate even at nighttime.

He said many provincial airports will be installed with night-vision equipment by next year. Night vision capability will improve visual awareness in smoky, foggy or dark environments, the transportation secretary explained.

Domestic carriers bundle their departures at daytime so that all of their flights are able to take off from their points of departure before sunset.

This has contributed to congestion and slotting problems at the Naia terminals, said Roxas.