THE Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) on Thursday said it has already incurred over a billion pesos in financial losses since the onset of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic early this year.
“Our [financial] losses are quite large. For now, in our last tally at the end of April, we have recorded over a billion losses in revenues in our airports,” MIAA General Manager Eddie V. Monreal said during an online briefing.
He attributed the losses to the significant decline in the number of commercial flights at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), which MIAA operates.
From 760 flights per day prior to Covid-19 crisis, flights at Naia has dwindled to a low of 10 flights per day.
“So now, our airport is now operating with only less than 10 percent of its capacity,” Monreal revealed.
For this week, no inbound flights were allowed at Naia and other international airports in the country upon the orders of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’s (IATF) and National Task Force for Covid-19.
The week-long suspension of inbound flights aims to give authorities time to reduce the number of quarantined overseas Filipino workers (OFW) staying in Metro Manila and nearby areas.
Monreal said they do not expect Naia operations to normalize for the duration of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.
However, he said, they hope the traffic of domestic flights at Naia would increase once the quarantine restrictions in the National Capital Region, or some of its cities, are downgraded to general community quarantine.
He said the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) is already crafting the guidelines for the said eventuality.