Sangil: The Clark airport, then and now

IT IS correct to claim that Clark will be the next premier business center and gateway to Asia. Hindi na bago yan mga amigo (It’s nothing new my friends).

We have been saying that many years ago and was repeated last week by all the President’s men including Department of Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez, Transportation Secretary Art Tugade, Bases Conversion and Development Authority Vince Dizon et al. These hombres inspected the ongoing construction of the passenger terminal.

But I think it is not totally correct when Tugade said that “no one was flying over Clark except from UPS and the bats and the birds at night.”

Maybe he assumed that those in attendance are ignorant of how efforts were made since 2001 to start the groundwork and it was in full throttle after few years.

Flights from neighboring countries started using Clark Airport even before the secretary sat as a member of the Clark International Airport Corporation Board. The declaration only “bats and birds were only flying” before he assumed a government seat is most unfair to people who served Clark International Airport Corporation ahead of him who labored hard for the realization of a very active airport.

I believe it is never the intention of Secretary Tugade to mislead but maybe he just got carried away. He can be credited on some accomplishments and he is a credit to the Duterte administration.

I am aware on all the efforts put in by people like Roy Navarro, Manny Angeles, Chicos Luciano, Levy Laus, Jess Nicdao, Al Cusi, Alex Caugiran and the rank and file to realize a dream of an international airport. I was also involved in several air services agreements here and abroad.

The coming of budget airlines which were not charged of any airside fees in the first two years of their operations as a means of come-on. The roadshows done in several places in the country and explained the “no hassle” travel using Clark airport. First, there were tens of thousands passengers, then few hundreds of thousands, then a million and so on.

Since the presidency of now House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, efforts were already on the drawing board for Clark Airport to be the international gateway but somehow, there were delays in the negotiations with several proposals mostly coming from international and local constructors like Al Karafi, China’s Beijing Urban Construction Group(BUCG), Singapore’s Changi and few more others.

This came about because The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is consistently listed as among the worst airports in the world. Not only because it is too crowded, dirty and poorly managed, but there is a very heavy air traffic that causes delay to discomfiture of airline passengers, their planes circling around the aerodrome for many minutes before they can make landing. And its present location, it can no longer expand to construct more runways, and no more space to extend its single runway.

National leadership is very much aware that due to hefty increase in the traffic load of airlines, it is a must that an international gateway to replace NAIA should be built and the most logical option is the Clark International Airport. The Clark airport has more room for expansion. It is located in 2,200 hectares, presently having two parallel runways with a provision of a third runway fit really for an international gateway.

There was a dramatic increase in the international passenger flights after upgrades undertaken. The departure lounge and the arrival area were spruced up to make it more convenient for passengers. A baggage conveyor was added and dual passenger boarding bridges were installed, and resulted to more airlines using the airports. Diverted flights not able to making a safe landing at the NAIA frequently landed at DMIA as their safe haven.

The early airline companies making flights to DMIA are Asiana Airlines, Cebu Pacific, Dragon Air, Zest Airways, SeaAir, Jin Air and other known airlines coming in later. Some stayed, others stopped their flights due to less passenger traffic.

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