The new Maasin City airport passenger terminal building with a daily capacity of 300 passengers, to be inaugurated on Monday by DOTr and CAAP. pic.twitter.com/5Beqgxdx9P

— Ron Gagalac (@rongagalac) July 1, 2018

MANILA -- The Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) will inaugurate on Monday the new passenger terminal building of the Maasin Airport in Southern Leyte.

The new building has a capacity of 300 passengers per day or about 100,000 travelers annually. It is built within the 36-hectare airport that has a 1.3-km runway.

DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade, DOTr Undersecretary for Aviation and Airports Capt. Manuel Antonio Tamayo, and CAAP director general Capt. Jim Sydiongco will lead the inauguration of the building that was started to be built in 2015.

But the airport is still a work in progress. It does not have yet an air control tower and a fire station building. By 2022, however, the runway is expected to extend to 2 kilometers with night runway lights to allow bigger commercial aircraft.

At the moment, only a 9-seater Cessna commercial plane is operating at the airport with routes of Maasin-Cebu, Maasin-Tagbilaran, and vice versa. By 2020, the DOTr is hoping Maasin-Manila flights will be operational using the 76-seater bombardier plane of commercial airlines.

The airport’s new passenger terminal building aims to upgrade the airport from a community airport to a standard Principal Class 2 airport, so that it can meet increasing air transport demands.

Tugade said the Maasin Airport, the only airport serving Southern Leyte, is expected to enhance the city’s economic accessibility.

“Gusto natin inclusive growth, kaya kung mapapansin ninyo, agresibo tayo sa pag-implement ng mga proyekto sa mga probinsya. Gaya nitong bagong terminal ng Maasin airport na siguradong makakatulong sa economic activity ng Leyte,” he said in a statement.

Maasin’s tourist attractions include Cagnituan, a huge subterranean cave, with a waterfall, and a lagoon, and an 18th century church which is a pilgrimage site. Its neighboring towns are known for dive sites.

In 2013, Maasin Airport served as a backup entry point for relief goods and medicine deliveries during the onslaught of super typhoon Yolanda — proving its capability and potential to serve as an alternate airport to Tacloban City’s Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport.