A Filipino politician has asked the country's president and transport minister to intervene and halt the transfer of propellor aircraft flights from Manila Ninoy Aquino International to Angeles City Clark International, saying that the relocation would damage domestic tourism.

Manila's Politiko news site reports National Unity Party member Luis Ray Villafuerte as saying that the Manila Slot Coordination Committee (MSCC) decision to shift all propeller aircraft flights to Clark by the end of 2026 could mean tourist traffic flows to smaller airports decrease because passengers arriving at Manila Ninoy Aquino Airport do not want to make the 90-minute drive to Clark Airport to catch a regional connecting flight.

Villafuerte said arriving passengers who wanted to travel beyond Manila would instead choose airports serviced by jet aircraft, allowing them to connect at Ninoy Aquino. Airports with runways not big enough to accommodate jets would miss out on this traffic. Aside from pausing the MSCC order, Villafuerte's longer-term solution is to speed up airport infrastructure upgrades, allowing more domestic airports to handle jet aircraft.

“It is our hope that this MSCC decision on the gradual transfer of all turboprop operations from Ninoy Aquino to Clark will be put on the back burner until such time that the Department of Transport can carry out the long-planned expansion of the runways at Naga and other secondary airfields nationwide so they can accommodate bigger aircraft like A320s in place of the would-be banned turboprops,” Villafuerte said. "The airport upgrades must happen as soon as possible so secondary airfields can have room for bigger aircraft."

Villafuerte represents the Camarines Sur province in the Bicol region. The airport in Naga, the province's largest city, has a single 1,402-metre runway and is serviced by Cebgo (DG, Manila Ninoy Aquino International) operating 2x daily ATR72 flights to Manila Ninoy Aquino. But those flights will soon shift to Clark.

"This will severely hurt the tourism industry not only in Camarines Sur but for the entire Bicol as well, considering that our province is the biggest tourism revenue earner in the region," adds Villafuerte. Plans exist to upgrade Naga Airport and extend its runway but work has yet to start.

Mike Szucs, the CEO of Cebu Pacific Air (5J, Manila Ninoy Aquino International), which operates Cebgo, recently told ch-aviation that all its turboprop flights would move to Clark by the end of October 2025, per the MSCC's mandate. Szucs said he'd rather not transfer the flights but agrees the airport is doing the right thing given the infrastructure limitations. "They're trying to maximise the use of a constrained asset," he said.

Szucs says the Department of Transport is working on runway upgrades at smaller airports - a process that will take several years but is underway. Like Villafuerte, he sees the travel time between Ninoy Aquino and Clark as a problem but says it should only be an interim issue. As runways get progressively upgraded and able to handle aircraft like A320s and B737s, Szucs plans to send in jets from Ninoy Aquino in place of the ATRs.