Considering how long Bacolod-Silay Airport of supposedly international standards has already been in operation, as evidenced by its current state of dilapidation due to the lack of TLC by the people responsible for it, another of the great mysteries connected to its existence would be how come, after all this time, a facility as important as an airport is still so inaccessible to those who don’t have private vehicles.
I am a fortunate fellow because I live in Silay City, with my home less than 10 minutes away from the airport by car. So even if my wife’s work requires her to go to the airport on an almost weekly basis, bringing her there isn’t too much trouble because we have our own car. However, I cannot imagine how hassle it would be if she had to use public transportation to get there, especially for the early morning flights where she has to be at the airport before sunrise.
Aside from taxis, ride shares, and so-called airport shuttles, there is no mode of public transport that can take passengers to and from the airport in a safe, affordable, reliable, and efficient manner.
Imagine how it would be for DIY tourists who expect some form of public transportation to take them from the airport to the city, which is a common feature in most first world countries. In almost all of the airports I’ve been to in my travels, we have almost never needed to take a taxi, limousine service, or shuttle because there is usually an airport bus or train service that takes passengers to the heart of the city.
The last time I went to Taiwan, I had the choice of a commuter or express train to take me from the airport to the heart of Taipei. To be fair, that mode of public transportation took a bit of figuring out compared to a straightforward but more expensive taxi ride, as demonstrated by the adventure of a member of our group who took a different flight and got kind of lost when the maps app on his phone displayed the destinations in Chinese characters, but the point is that the service exists, both for locals and tourists, and having or hiring a car is merely an option and not a necessity.
My son who goes to university in Japan doesn’t have anyone to pick him up from the airport in Fukuoka, but he can still get to Hiroshima, a city that is almost 300 kilometers away, without having to ride a taxi or book a grab. All he has to do is get on a bus from the airport to the train/bus station, where he can transfer to a bullet train or overnight bus to his final destination.
In comparison, imagine not having a car and having to use only public transportation from Sipalay to the Bacolod-Silay Airport. Que horror.
Our airport may be ill-maintained and ugly, but it is a relatively busy one and if there are any plans to improve it in the near or medium-term future, it should also be about time for our public officials to figure out a way for it to be serviceable by public transportation. Coming up with a public-private partnership for a regularly scheduled aircon bus service from the town center of Silay, to the airport, to a transport hub like the Ceres north terminal, and vise versa, doesn’t sound that difficult, if you come to think of it. After all, the pieces are already there. All that is needed is empathy and political will. Heck, it could even be the start of an alternative, if not better, public transport system.
Isn’t it sad that even Silaynons who forget to arrange to have a relative with a car pick them up from the airport and refuse to pay for an overpriced taxi cab, will end up having to walk outside the airport perimeter fence to hire a tricycle to take them to the city that is merely 5 kilometers away, because there is no other form of public transportation. Mind you, the airport that Silay City officials are so proud of is just 10 minutes away from the city center, and yet no such service exists for Silaynons who are supposed to conveniently live near the airport but don’t have the cars and drivers to take them to and from it.
My wife is lucky because she has me to drive her to the airport, which is part of the routine of her job. But if something were to happen to me, or if I were busy with something else, there is just no easy way for her to get to and from there, unless she hails a grab or a cab. This is what everyone else who doesn’t have a car or driver has to deal with, and despite the airport no longer being “new”, nobody has done anything about it. Is it because of the apathy of our public officials who don’t use public transportation? How much longer do we have to wait before we don’t have to worry about getting to and from our airports?*
