DOTr Is Fixing Airport Runways to Lower Your Airfare

Booking a flight often feels like a gamble with your monthly budget. You sit at your desk, refreshing tabs and hoping the price drops before you click "buy." Most of us just accept high fares as part of the daily grind, but the government is currently looking at airport runways to change that.

Department of Transportation (DOTr) is focusing on physical airport improvements to help bring down the cost of plane tickets. Secretary Giovanni Lopez recently explained that the size and quality of a runway directly affect how much you pay for a seat.

Why Bicol International Airport needs a 300 million peso fix

^{Image credit: Bicol International Airport | DonTV, DOT V, DOTr}

Bicol International Airport (BIA) is a primary example of why fares stay high. While the airport has a 2,500-metre runway, planes can only use about 2,000 metres of it. This is because power transmission lines from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines are currently in the way.

Because the usable space is short, larger jets cannot land easily. To fix this, the DOTr ordered the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines to set aside 300 million pesos. This money will go toward resolving the issue with the power lines. Once the full runway is open, bigger jets can land, which usually leads to cheaper ticket prices for passengers.

Also read: Cheap Domestic Flights Needed as Philippines Ranks Last in Southeast Asia Tourism

How bigger aircraft and runway expansion reduce ticket prices

When an airport can only handle small aircraft, the cost per seat goes up because there are fewer passengers to share the operating costs. Secretary Lopez wants to expand existing runways wherever the government can buy the necessary land to allow larger planes to land.

The agency is currently looking for right-of-way land to extend these short runways while also ensuring better instruments are installed so airports can operate more efficiently. Moving forward, new airports must now be designed to fit larger aircraft from the very start to avoid these limitations.

Future airport infrastructure for affordable domestic travel

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The government is also changing how they build new transport hubs. This new policy for runway design prevents the problem of building an airport that is too small for modern budget airlines to use effectively.

If these technical fixes work, the DOTr hopes to see more flight options and lower prices within the year. For the average traveller, this means less time worrying about the "Book Now" button and more money kept for the actual holiday or for daily expenses back home.

^{Featured Image credit: Bicol International Airport | DonTV, DOT V, DOTr}