RP builds airport terminal

RP builds airport terminal

MANILA (AFP): President Fidel Ramos on Saturday led groundbreaking ceremonies for a modern 4.9-billion-peso (US$188- million) domestic airport terminal in the Philippine capital due for completion in early 1998.

Ramos said the new terminal will replace the current 47-year- old facility, which he said has become obsolete and incapable of servicing growing passenger volume.

"For far too long, air travelers to the Philippines had to make do with an obsolete domestic airport that was not only small but also ill-equipped," Ramos said.

He said the airport is designed to handle only two million passengers a year, but current volume is now over four million and is increasing at a rate of eight percent annually.

French firm Aeroports de Paris and the Japan Airport Consultants Inc. drew up the plan for the terminal, which transportation officials said will be able to handle nine million domestic passengers yearly.

Mitsubishi Corp. of Japan heads a consortium that will construct the facility and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund of Japan will handle the financing, the transportation department said in a statement Friday.