Photo. Philippine Airlines/Facebook 

MANILA, Philippines – Most island flights will be transferred from Manila to Clark and other secondary airports by March 30 coinciding with the summer season. 

Manila International Airport Authority head executive assistant Atty. Manuel Jeffrey David said the move would allow the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to accommodate more passengers. 

“Considering the limited capacity of the airport, parang, currently we’re running around 42 flights per hour po. So you call it flight slots. Alam naman po natin, na pag turboprop po, mas maliit po yung passenger capacity ng eroplano,” said on Tuesday. 

“So by moving 30 percent of the capacity we also expect naman po na ‘yung airlines natin would replace that with bigger airplanes, so mga A320s po that can accommodate more passengers.”

This means island flights, mostly operated by Cebu Pacific’s Cebgo and Philippine Airlines’ PAL Express will now have to fly out from Clark or other secondary airports for travel to famous island destinations. 

A turboprop airplane is a smaller vessel carrying light loads of about 60 passengers used to fly to regional destinations in the Philippines like Camiguin, Calbayog, Siargao, Masbate, Surigao, Busuanga and Naga.

David said the decision to move the turboprop flights was made by the Manila Slot Coordination Committee, which includes the Undersecretary for Aviation from the Department of Transportation, the general manager of MIAA, and the director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines. 

“At the start of Summer 2025 (30 March 2025), scheduled domestic carriers with turboprop aircraft must transfer at least 30 percent of their turboprop operations at NAIA to secondary airports,” the committee said in its order.

“By Winter 2025 (26 October 2025), all turboprop operations of such scheduled domestic carriers at NAIA must have been completely transferred to other secondary airports,” the committee said.

Not covered

However those used by general aviation or the private planes used mostly by politicians to go to the different provinces are not covered by the order. 

Also not included are scheduled domestic carriers using turboprop aircraft or those that have five or fewer aircraft in their fleet such as Sunlight Airways, Island Aviation, Alphaland and AirSwift. 

These companies are given until the start of Summer 2026 to completely transfer their operations to secondary airports.