Cebu Pacific (CEB) expects to carry 12.1 million passengers to and from Manila and a total of 15 million including Cebu, Clark and Davao, by 2013, indicating that airport facilities need to be expanded to prevent any potential squeeze on tourism and trade.

The full capacity of Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (T3) is 13 million.

“By 2012 alone, we expect to carry 13 million passengers system-wide as we take delivery of 10 new Airbus A320 aircraft in the next 3 years and expand to new domestic and international destinations,” according to Candice Iyog, CEB vice president for marketing and distribution.

“CEB’s rapid expansion was substantially helped by its transfer to T3 in August 2008, when nobody else wanted to use it. We could not have grown this much had we stayed at the old domestic terminal which has a capacity of only two million per year,” she explained.

T3 provided the space, convenience, and opportunity for CEB to really grow and serve its passengers.

“Transiting passengers, for instance, could catch their connecting flights with ease since our domestic and international operations are under one roof, as are other airlines, which put everyone on equal footing.”

“Our population is growing and Asia, including the Philippines, has been tagged as a growth area.

We believe that our airports, being the welcoming gateway into our country, should be adequate now and in the future,” she added.

Based on recent newspaper reports, airport authorities plan to spend P40 billion in the next 10 years to expand Manila’s airport capacity to keep up with rising air traffic.

Manila’s current airport system, made up of three NAIA terminals and the domestic terminal, have a total capacity of 33 million passengers a year. Last year, 24.5 million travelers passed through these four airports.

CEB’s total domestic traffic going through Manila reached 6,116,705 last year, up 33% from the previous year’s 4,615,464. International traffic went up 29% from 1,062,394 to 1,216,661 last year while combined local and regional traffic reached 7,333,366, up 29% from 5,677,858 in 2008. This year, CEB expects to carry more than 10 million passengers on the domestic and regional fronts.

About 90% of all air travel traffic in the country is in Manila’s four airports.