The long-planned rail connection to the country’s main airport is moving into construction, bringing Metro Manila commuters closer to a direct subway ride to NAIA Terminal 3 and a potential escape from traffic-choked airport trips.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday led the groundbreaking of Contract Package 109 (CP109) of the P488.48-billion Metro Manila Subway Project (MMSP), covering the underground NAIA Terminal 3 station and tunnels connecting Taguig and Pasay.

“From Quezon City to Taguig and now to our international airport, the MMSP is slowly taking shape. Many of our people spend too much time on the road,” Marcos said.

“We cannot address congestion through road works alone. Our people need transportation solutions that connect them to the places where they live, work and travel. The modernization of our railway system remains a priority of this administration,” he added. 

Once the entire subway is operational, travel between Quezon City and NAIA Terminal 3 is expected to take about 35 minutes, compared with more than an hour and 10 minutes currently. 

The airport station is expected to handle about 70,000 passengers daily by 2035, rising to 72,000 by 2040 and 74,000 by 2045, potentially shifting a significant volume of airport-bound trips from Metro Manila’s roads to rail. 

CP109 covers a 2.413-kilometer stretch and will build the NAIA Terminal 3 station beneath the terminal’s open parking area. 

The station will be directly connected to the airport building through cooperation with New NAIA Infra Corp., which operates NAIA. 

The package is scheduled to commence work in October, following its notice of award in March, contract signing in May, and notice to proceed in June. 

The government has already completed right-of-way acquisition for the station area. 

The tunnel portion, however, was only 51 percent complete in terms of right-of-way acquisition, with properties involving the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, the Department of National Defense, and the Pasay City government among those covered. 

Construction of the airport section will also pose a major engineering challenge as tunneling proceeds around existing airport infrastructure.

CP109 will use tunnel boring machines for the tunnels and the cut-and-cover method for the station. The project will require underpinning existing NAIA Expressway piers to allow the subway alignment to run beneath them while maintaining support for the structures above. 

The NAIA station will have a gross floor area of 19,179.5 square meters and span 449 meters. The package includes 1.964 kilometers of tunnels, with depths ranging from 10 meters to 37 meters. 

Aside from airport connection, the subway is designed to provide another high-capacity north-south transport backbone for Metro Manila.

The 33.103-kilometer system will operate 30 eight-car trainsets capable of carrying 2,228 passengers each. Trains are designed to run at speeds of up to 80 kilometers per hour with five-minute intervals. 

Its stations will serve areas across Valenzuela, Quezon City, Pasig, Taguig, Pasay, and Parañaque, including interchange points with other railway lines.

The project has an approved cost of P488.48 billion, with P370.77 billion coming from loan proceeds and P117.71 billion representing the Philippine government’s share. The subway is financed through Japan International Cooperation Agency loan agreements. 

Full completion of the Metro Manila Subway, the country’s first underground railway, is targeted for the third quarter of 2031.