More UV Express Services Coming to Laguindingan Airport - DOTC

Wazzup Pilipinas!

A total of sixty (60) additional UV Express vehicles will be added to the current land transport fleet servicing passengers coming to and from the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan through the Laguindingan Airport, in response to appeals from the public to augment the land accessibility of the Northern Mindanao gateway.

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has approved a request from the Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board’s (LTFRB) Region 10 office to allow 50 more UV Express vehicles to serve the Laguindingan Airport-Cagayan de Oro route and 10 additional vehicles to ply the Laguindingan Airport-Iligan City route.

Based on LTFRB’s records, this will bring the airport’s total UV Express services to 65 for Cagayan de Oro City and 25 for Iligan City.

Currently, a mere three (3) companies operate UV Express services at the airport, and only 1 UV Express unit is dispatched per airline arrival.

According to the LTFRB, this insufficiency of land transportation services to meet passenger demands has left travellers with no option but to take more expensive taxi services, which in turn has resulted in some overcharging practices by unscrupulous taxi drivers.

With these new franchises, airport accessibility will be improved, and is expected to significantly enhance the convenience, affordability, reliability, and efficiency of the passenger travel experience. They will also help boost the emerging industry tourism and agribusiness trade in the region.

The Laguindingan Airport, which replaced the old Lumbia Airport in Cagayan de Oro last June, has an average of eighteen (18) to twenty three (23) flights per day and serves incoming passengers from different origins such as Manila, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, and Zamboanga. Per records of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), the total passenger arrival is estimated at 2,127.

The Laguindingan Airport features a 2.1-kilometer runway and 7,184-square meter passenger terminal building with a capacity of 1.6 million passengers per year. It presently operates under visual flight rules (VFR), and the installation of the instrument landing system (ILS) is expected to be completed by mid-2014.