Airport fee included in airline ticket by March 1

BY March 1, after checking in for a domestic flight out of Cebu, one no longer needs to fall in line to pay the terminal fee at the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

Yesterday, the management of the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) signed an agreement with five domestic airlines servicing the airport for the integration of the P200 Domestic Passenger Service charge or airport terminal fee into the passenger ticket charges.

But tickets bought before the implementation date of integration of Domestic Passenger Service Charge (DPSC) will still be made to pay the terminal fee before entering the MCIA terminal.

Nigel Villarete, MCIA manager, said the integration of the terminal fee to the airline tickets will reduce by one step the departure process of a passenger.

Originally the departure process has five steps, namely, initial screening, check-in, paying of terminal fees, final screening and boarding the airplanes.

Under the new scheme, domestic airlines retain 3.5 percent or P7 of the P200 terminal fee.

Cutting by one step passengers have to through before boarding their flights.

Villarete said this would speed up passenger movement in the MCIA.

The airport terminal is designed to cater to 4.7 million passengers per year, but it has been catering to 6 million passengers already.

The signatories of the agreement are representative of five airlines; Arturo Alejandro, director of Zest Airways Incorporated; Linda Oliva Ramos, Chief Executive Officer of Seair Incorporated; Inigo Zobel, president and CEO of Airphil Express; Antonio Jose Rodriguez, Vice-president of Airport Services of Cebu Air Incorporated and Ismael Augusto Gozon, Senior Vice-president of Philippine Airlines.

The event was also attended by Acting Gov. Agnes Magpale.

Not included

However the International Pasenger Service Charge (IPSC) is still not included upon the payment of airline tickets due to a lot of exemptions which makes it difficult to implement said Villarete.

“It is the exemptions making a lot of obstacles to integrate the international terminal fee to the ticket,” he explained while saying that there are about eight exemptions among which are athletes for sports, pilgrims going to Mecca and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW).

There is also a plan to include in the international airline ticket the travel tax of P1,600. This is still being negotiated with the Department of Tourism (DOT) and Tourism Infrastructure Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA).

Transportation Undersecretary Jose Perpetuo Lotilla said during yesterday’s signing in Waterfront Mactan said that their office should be the forefront of giving additional, better and more efficient services to our people./Correspondent Jucell Marie P. Cuyos