Clark airport to be No. 1 gateway by 2010

CLARK, PAMPANGA - Clark International Airport Corp (CIAC)will spend P18.5 billion to make the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) a world-class logistics hub and prepare it to become the Philippines’ premier international gateway by 2010. CIAC president and chief executive officer Victor Jose I. Luciano said construction would take three years, beginning late 2007. By 2010, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila will have reached full capacity and international flights will be transferred to DMIA. Of the P18.5 billion, P13.56 billion will be used for civil and architectural works, P125.54 million for navigational systems, P55.96 million for a meteorological facility, P704.82 million for airport lighting, P3.99 billion for airport utilities and P75.62 million for airport maintenance equipment. As part of civil and architectural works, CIAC will build a larger passenger terminal (Terminal 2) next to the existing terminal for P2 billion. The airport is designed to handle up to five million passenger a year, or twice the traffic expected by 2011. Cargo volume is seen to triple to 450,000 tons. Terminal 2 will be patterned after budget carrier terminals in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. “We can replicate it here because Clark’s passenger traffic comes mostly from low-cost carriers," Luciano said. There is no problem attracting more airlines to Clark because the aeronautical, customs, and quarantine fees they pay at DMIA are almost “30 percent lower than Naia," said the executive. Several budget carriers now fly to Clark, including the Philippines’ Cebu Pacific, Tiger Airways of Singapore and Air Asia of Malaysia. CIAC is in talks with Thai Air Asia, Viva Macau and Tair Airways of Saudi Arabia to do the same. A large Spanish construction company with interests in European airports is among those interested to help develop the airport. Development Bank of the Philippines “has expressed interest in funding some of the developments of the airport" and could help raise counterpart funds for any official development assistance on the project, Luciano said. Eventually, CIAC will be supplanted by a bigger agency, the Clark International Airport Authority, which will oversee the operations at the international gateway. -GMANews.TV