CLARK FREEPORT --- The Department of Transportation (DOTR) is set to release some P2.8 billion for the construction of a second passenger terminal at the Clark International Airport, according to the Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC).
CIAC confirmed the release of the initial funding for the new passenger terminal that is expected to double the airport’s capacity to eight million passengers a year. The second terminal is scheduled for construction within the next three years, CIAC also said.
The CIA, an alternative to Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), has a capacity of four million passengers a year.
However, it has been handling less than half of that volume, the distance from Metro Manila being one of the reasons, traffic and lack of mass transit options to and from the capital district.
To address this, the Department of Transportation has committed to build a railway line linking Clark International Airport to Metro Manila, and possibly to NAIA. Details of that plan, however, have yet to be divulged.
In previous statements, CIAC said the new passenger terminal would cost some P7.2 billion and would cater mainly to low-cost carriers. French firm Aeroport De Paris was tapped to design the project.
“We are following the lead of President Duterte’s directive to develop the premier airport of the North,” Alexander Cauguiran, president and CEO of state-run CIAC, said in the statement.
“The only way to decongest Metro Manila is to further develop Clark Airport,” he added.