Ronnie Tiotuico, director of the Department of Tourism (DOT) in Central Luzon, confirmed reports that an inbound passenger flight was delayed for two hours sometime during the hot air balloon festival held here from Feb.12 to 15, to give way to the flight of hot air balloons in this freeport.
He cited a Notice to Airmen (Notam) issued by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), notifying the airlines of the need to delay a scheduled flight by two hours.
“Nowhere in the world can you find hot air balloons being encouraged in airport areas,” he said. Tiotuico cited worldwide standards specifying a 25-kilometer radius for airport as safe clearance from balloon flights.
A multi-sectoral group called Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM), which was founded to bat for the transformation of the Clark airport here into a premiere international gateway way back during the Ramos administration, has been criticizing the holding of the hot air balloon festival within the grounds of the Clark aviation complex.
PGKM chair Ruperto Cruz said the annual hot air balloon festival here would tend to downgrade Clark as premiere airport as they are incompatible.
Tiotuico said that while he was among the founders of the international balloon festival here in 1994 upon the initiative of then Tourism Sec. Mina Gabor, he noted that the Clark airport then was inactive in the aftermath of the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991.
“Three years later, Sec. Gabor decided to turn over the festival to the private sector, and that was when Capt. Joi Roa, who used to be a mere festival participant, entered the scene,” he recalled.
This, even as Tiotuico expressed support for the holding of yet another international hot air balloon festival on March 26 to 29 at the Pradera Verde Wakeboarding Park, a distance of 33 kilometers away from the Clark airport in Barangay Prado Siongco in Lubao, Pampanga.
He said at least 45 hot air balloons are expected to join the event, the biggest participation in any hot air balloon event in Southeast Asia.
An average of 35 hot air balloons have been noted at the festival at Clark since 1994.
