Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 4. —Courtesy of MIAA
MANILA, Philippines — Terminal 4 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) will be rebuilt at another site as the private operator of the country’s main gateway found it to have become a major safety hazard.
Instead, the new Naia Terminal 4 will be constructed on the land where the former international cargo terminal stands, which is located between the airport’s Terminal 1 and Terminal 2.
The New Naia Infra Corp. (NNIC) has plans for Naia Terminal 4 to handle domestic flights of Air Asia and other domestic flights of Cebu Pacific that cannot be accommodated at Naia Terminal 2.
“Our renovation of the old Naia Terminal 4 will no longer proceed since we deem it a big hazard, an obstacle,” NNIC general manager Lito Alvarez said in a news conference.
He said plans to convert the cargo terminal into a new passenger terminal will take about six months.
The old terminal was shut down in November last year for renovation works and was supposed to reopen in February, but NNIC found situations similar to the deadly crash landing of a Korean airline last year.
“Many people died during the Jeju Air accident. We don’t want that to happen in our country, so we decided to just demolish [Naia Terminal 4], and not to build additional structures there,” he added.
Constructed in 1948, the 77-year-old Naia Terminal 4 was the first and original structure of the airport. It is located near the northern tip of Runway 13/31, the airport’s secondary runway that mainly caters to private planes and narrow-body aircraft.
The NNIC also announced it will push through with the construction of the Naia Terminal 5 by September, after the demolition of the abandoned Philippine Village Hotel.
The demolition will be finished in five month’s time, and Naia Terminal 5, will be completed “in two to three years,” and will serve as an extension of Naia Terminal 2 in serving domestic flights.
