MANILA, Philippines — The Luzon International Premiere Airport Development Corp. (LIPAD), which is set to take over the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the Clark international airport this week, plans to repurpose the airport’s existing passenger terminal once the new terminal starts operations next year.
Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said the government is set to turn over the O&M of the Clark international airport to LIPAD, formerly known as the North Luzon Airport Consortium, on Aug. 16.
LIPAD, a consortium composed of Changi Airports Philippines Pte. Ltd., Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Philippine Airport Ground Support Solutions Inc., bagged in January the 25-year concession agreement for the O&M of the Clark international airport.
It is the first successful hybrid public-private partnership project under the Duterte administration.
“While the new terminal is being finished, we will be operating the old terminal first,” LIPAD president and CEO Bi Yong Chungunco said.
“Right now we’ll just takeover and see how it goes. We will look at all the procedures and we’ll see what changes will be needed,” she said.
Construction of the new passenger terminal at Clark international airport is being undertaken by the consortium of Megawide Construction Corp. and GMR Infrastructure Ltd. of India.
Tugade said the new terminal is set to be opened by June or July next year.
He said the second terminal is expected to increase Clark airport’s capacity to 12 million passengers per annum from four million at present.
“We’re waiting for them to hand it (the new terminal) over to us and once it is handed over, we will fit it out so it depends on when the hand over is. It will be empty so we will be the one to fit out,” Chungunco said.
“Once the new terminal is there, we will repurpose the old terminal because we like the old airlines to go to the new terminal and then we repurpose the old terminal,” she said.
Chungunco said there are “lots of possibilities” for the airport’s existing terminal
“You can do convention center and things like that, and once the new terminal maxed out the capacity, we go back to the old terminal so that is why we keep it on hold,” she said.
The Clark airport averages around 11,500 passengers daily and registers 246 international and 480 domestic flights every week, according to the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC).