AN UNPRECEDENTED P1.07 billion. So grossed the Clark International Airport Corp. in 2018, the first ever over the P1-B mark since its creation in 1995.
“The number of airlines, flights, destinations and business activities increased ever since President Rodrigo Duterte called for greater utilization of the Clark airport. The marketability of Clark airport and the civil aviation complex were keys to achieving this milestone.” So credited current CIAC president Jaime Alberto Melo of the recordsetting revenue generation of the Clark airport.
The numbers proffered by Melo are definitely solid: 32 percent rise in revenues amounting to P257.43 million, 80 percent growth translating to P141.94 million in CIAC’s net income.
The revenues drawn from aeronautical and non-aeronautical operations at the airport, contributing 53 percent and 43 percent, respectively.
The Clark airport’s impressive numbers continue with daily passenger traffic averaging 11,500, and 246 international and 480 domestic flights weekly.
In 2018, some 2.6 million travelers passed through Clark. By 2022, the airport is eyed to be servicing 4.5 million passengers annually.
So, roll the drums did Melo for these achievements with paeans to “the Duterte administration’s full support, citing Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, whose agency oversees the airport’s operation, and CIAC’s parent company, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), headed by its president Vicencio Dizon.”
Unwittingly, or conveniently, missed out in Melo’s roll of honor is the man under whose CIAC presidency all these things came to pass – the increase in flights and destinations, higher passenger traffic, airport improvements, indeed his ever-inspiring presence at every launch of a new destination that which his successor has yet to do – Alexander S. Cauguiran.
No CIAC rejoicing can ever be complete, can ever be true of meaning without the mere mention of him.
