Dual airport scheme works – CIAC

MANILA, Philippines — The continued increase in flight operations of major airlines at the Clark International Airport confirms the viability of the national government’s dual airport policy. 

According to Alexander Cauguiran, Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) acting president,  the  number of Clark’s weekly flights reached 282 since President Duterte called for greater utilization of Clark International Airport and directed dual airport policy of operating both Clark and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila.

“Compared to previous years, more airlines are now appreciating Clark’s marketability and its increasing number of local destinations,” Cauguiran said.

He also said Clark’s established domestic connectivity to major islands in the country has increased flight and passenger traffic.

Cauguiran said Clark has already recorded 1.1 million passengers from January to October and passenger traffic is projected to reach 1.4 million this year, even before the construction of the new passenger terminal and runway has begun.

“Clark can never be the  main airport of Manila and we do not compete with NAIA operations since Clark caters to passengers from Northern and Central Luzon while NAIA targets Metro Manila and the southern population,” he said.

“Right now we are tapping a goldmine by servicing our catchment population of 21.4 million potential passengers and airlines are appreciating this,” Cauguiran said.

Referring to Clark airport’s ready market population from Region 1 to 3 and the Cordillera Administrative Region which easily entice airlines to mount operations at Clark, he said.

Meanwhile, Kazuhiro Ishida, Japan Airlines country manager to the Philippines, said his management team is impressed with the potential of Clark and added he will propose the mounting of Clark-Narita flights.

The announcements comes at the heels of a dialogue on Thursday between JAL executives and CIAC officials for possible servicing  of Clark-Narita flights via Jestar Japan, a subsidiary of JAL which currently flies daily to Narita, Osaka and Nagoya in NAIA. 

“There is a huge demand of passengers especially OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) and will propose an initial Clark-Narita route,” Ishida said. 

Accompanying Ishida during the meeting are other JAL executives Koji Yamazaki, Herr Obusan, Erwin dela Cruz, and Kazunobu Akutsu, Defense Attache of  the Embassy of Japan, who is incidentally coordinating with CIAC officials the forthcoming arrival of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the country for the ASEAN Summit.      

“We welcome JAL’s proposl as it will now be able to  lure business travelers to CRK’s connectivity to tourist destinations like Palawan, Davao and Boracay and Clark Freeport’s  world class hotels and recreation facilities,” Cauguiran said.

The influx of Japanese tourists will boost the  local hotel industry and business communities in the region, he said.                    

In addition to expanding, its commercial horizons, the construction of Clark’s  new terminal building  can take in eight million passengers annually – a huge addition to the existing 4.2 million passengers per year – for a total of 12.2 millon passengers per year.  

The project is spearheaded byTransportation Secretary Arthur Tugade and Bases Conversion and Development Authority president Vince Dizon who also led the bidding last Aug. 22 for the engineering, procurement and contruction (EPC) contract of the new passenger terminal project. – With Ding Cervantes