Cebu Airport Ready to Resume Operations with Enhanced Protocols

The Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) is ready to resume operations as safety measures for passengers and returning overseas Filipino workers and seafarers are in place at Terminals 1 and 2.

Andrew Harrison, GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corporation (GMCAC) chief executive advisor, on Monday said the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) and the private management have modified the operating airport environment to adopt the “new normal” in travel.

In a press conference at the MCIA, Harrison said the airport staff will undergo retraining for the implementation of the new guidelines of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID), Department of Health (DOH) and Department of Transportation (DOTr) for terminal operations under the new normal.

“As we experience a change to how we influence passenger behavior when using the airport, we will keenly observe how the passengers will react to the new environment and make adjustments as necessary,” Harrison said as he appealed for cooperation and understanding from passengers and crew.

Lawyer Steve Dicdican, MCIAA general manager, said the airport has set up a coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) testing laboratory equipped with “state-of-the art facilities that can process 900 to 2,000 swab samples per day.”

The testing laboratory at the arrival terminal is “for the benefit of arriving overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and seafarers,” in response to President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to process their travel back to their home provinces utilizing all modes of transportation.

Dicdican said the laboratory will also be extended to outbound international passengers who are required to obtain Covid-19 negative test certificates required by their countries of destination.

After taking the swab sample, which usually runs for five minutes, the OFWs and seafarers will be brought to designated patient care facilities, Dicdican said.

The test results will be available on-line to the DOH after 24 hours from the taking of the swab specimen, Dicdican added.

“This initiative will augment the government’s testing capacity and fast track the processing of arriving OFWs and seafarers and decongest Manila,” Dicdican said.

Harrison said the MCIAA and the GMCAC have invested around PHP15 million for the establishment of the testing laboratory at the airport.

The cost, Harrison said, is on top of the PHP5 million they spent to put in place safety measures such as posters reminding passengers to always wear face mask and walk at the right side, visual markers for physical distancing, stickers for chairs with distanced sitting arrangements, and other protocols.

“This is not for commercial purposes. This is what we do for Cebu,” Harrison said, adding that the airport management will not pass on the testing cost to the passengers.

On Monday, Nenette Castillon, MCIA domestic terminal operations head, briefed the Cebu media about the touchless and contactless “new normal” in travel starting from the entrance security check up to boarding.

Under the new normal, the security guard will process passenger’s passport or identification card through a television screen, the passengers will follow physical distancing visual markers in queuing for check in while others can take their boarding pass at touchless kiosks.

Glass panels have been installed in all check-in counters to separate the ground personnel processing baggage check in from the passengers.

Passengers will hear regular announcements of health protocols at the airport premises like taking of temperature, regularly sanitizing of hands at automatic and touchless hand-sanitizing containers installed all over the MCIA as well as disinfecting the shoes at the foothbaths along the entrance.

Also, send-off parties at the departure area have been limited to one companion regardless of the number of passengers. (PNA)