5 DAYS BEFORE LEAVING PRESIDENCY
    GMA to open upgraded terminal at Clark airport

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    CLARK FREEPORT – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo gets to finally inaugurate this Saturday the delayed P308.8-million Phase 1 expansion of the passenger terminal at the airport here named after her late father, ex-Pres. Diosdado Macapagal, five days before she steps down from her nine-year presidency.

    Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) executive vice president Alexander Cauguiran said Phase 1 of the terminal expansion project at the Diosdado Macacapagal International Airport (DMIA) here will increase the airport’s capacity to accommodate 500,000 more passengers annually, on top of two million it presently processes every year.

    Phase 1of the terminal upgrading project was supposed to have been completed last March 31 by its contractor A.G. Araja Construction and Development Corporation, but problems with sub-contractors reportedly delayed the project.

    Phase 1 is composed of building a two-storey terminal facility with two passenger boarding bridges equipped with flight information monitor, closed circuit public television, public address system, x-ray machines, and elevators and escalators.

    Cauguiran said this phase will allow large aircraft to load and unload passengers through tubes at door level. This enhances comfort and convenience since passengers will no longer use stairs in alighting or boarding aircraft.

    In 2008, the DMIA terminal, which was constructed by the Americans during their occupation of this former US air force base, was already expanded to increase its capacity to accommodate passengers from 500,000 to two million yearly.

    The expansion also paved the way for additional immigration counters, airlines offices, concessionaires’ area, and five airline ticketing offices and baggage conveyors among others facilities. 

    Phase II, which CIAC officials hope to be implemented also this year, would call for the expansion of the pre-departure and arrival areas and the construction of a domestic flight terminal, airline offices, check-in counters, and passenger baggage conveyor belt. An outlay of P200-million is required for this phase.

    DMIA is host to foreign and local carriers  such as Tiger Airways of Singapore, Air Asia of Malaysia, Asiana Airlines whose flights to Incheon in South Korea has connecting flights to the US, China and Japan, Cebu Pacific Air, and  South East Asian Airlines (Seair).

    The Spirit of Manila Airline and Jin Air, a subsidiary of Korean Air with chartered flights to Incheon in South Korea are also based here.

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