(With golden shovels, ground is broken by (L-R) Metrojet Ltd. manager for commercial Justin Yeung, Vice-Mayor Bryan Matthew Nepomuceno, Metrojet Engineering (Clark) Ltd. GM Wesley Slate, CIAC president-CEO Jaime Alberto Melo, John Leigh of Metrojet Ltd., BCDA VP Arrey Perez, Metrojet CEO Gary Dolski, CIAC marketing manager Jay Punzalan, Metrojet Ltd. COO Bruce Watson, Mabalacat City Mayor Cris Garbo and Metrojet Ltd. regional manager for operational excellence and special projects Dwyn Jones. Photo Courtesy of CIAC-CCO)
CLARK FREEPORT – Metrojet Limited, a Hong Kong-based business aviation service provider with presence throughout the Asia-Pacific, broke ground for its regional expansion project here on Wednesday.
The project, a stateof-the-art business aviation parking and maintenance facility which costs $25 million, is planned to be operational by the second quarter of next year.
Bruce Watson, Metrojet chief operating officer, welcomed guests led by Mayor Crisostomo C. Garbo of Mabalacat City and Angeles City Vice Mayor Bryan Nepomuceno as well as top officials from the Bases Conversion Development Authority and its subsidiaries Clark Development Corp. (CDC) and Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) during the simple groundbreaking ceremony at the Clark civil aviation complex here.
“What we are really celebrating here is the biggest single investment Metrojet has made in its business aviation industry,” Watson said. “This is the biggest single thing we’ve done, and we are really proud to try to make this happen in Clark because we believe this is the place to be,” he added.
Watson said Clark’s strategic location that is “growing and developing over time” is the perfect place for Metrojet’s largest investment in its 21- year history.
“We’re very excited. We’re gonna have the crown jewels of Asia and I promise you we’re gonna have nicest and busiest business aviation hangar here in the region,” said Gary Dolski, Metrojet CEO.
He also thanked the BCDA “for helping us get a very long-term lease and a long-term future in Clark.”
Dolski said Clark will be the hub for all Metrojet’s operations in Asia.
But more importantly, Dolski said, Metrojet will become a home for a lot of its employees. He said their goal is to hire locally and bring OFWs back to the country.
The project will be built to the highest international standards, including a fully typhoon-proof infrastructure and an aviation specific fire-suppression system.
The project sits on a 2.6-hectare property with over 7,100 square-meters of hangar floor space which can accommodate 10 long range business jets and up to maximum Boeing business jet or Airbus corporate jet. It also has a 2,500 square meters of customer accommodation and storage, fixed-based operator (FBO) capability and engineering support workshops and materials warehousing. It has a dedicated taxi-way and parking ramp of over 11,000 square meters and will provide secure and private aircraft parking, maintenance and FBO services.
