In an urgent appeal to President Aquino on Friday, the AOC said it is backing the move for the full and immediate development of the Clark International Airport (CIA) so as to attract more airlines and tourists to visit the Philippines.
Louise Moser, chairman of the Bangkok AOC, said “the development of Clark International Airport is a vital importance to traffic growth as well as to lure more tourists to visit the country.”
He said “the AOC Thailand will give its allout support in seeing Clark International Airport’s further expansion.”
Moser made the statement during the group’s visit here on Friday as he made an urgent appeal to President Aquino for its full utilization.
President Larry Isidro and Chairman Leoncio Dakila Nakpil of the Manila AOC and a member of the ASEAN AOC also called on President Aquino for the full and immediate development of this airport.
“We would like to bring everybody closer in the spirit of the ASEAN cooperation and one of which is to encourage airlines to operate in Clark because all of the potentials are here,” Isidro said.
He added that the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila is now heavily congested and that they want to sell Clark as growing international gateway of the Philippines.
Meanwhile, Moser said he was impressed by the developments at this airport since his last visit 10 years ago.
“I am very much impressed and commend the Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC) management headed by CIAC President and CEO Atty. Emigdio Tanjuatco III for a job well done,” he said.
Moser said Thailand has also an airport that used to be a US military air base which is now being considered to be converted into a civil aviation complex.
For his part, Tanjuatco also thanked the group for their support to the CIA and urged them to consider Clark airport for their operations so as to have more flights.
“This visit is very important for Clark airport and we are currently engaging ourselves in an aggressive marketing campaign to further promote the development of this airport,” Tanjuatco told the Thailand and Manila AOC members during a briefing at the CIAC Boardroom.
Tanjuatco also said CIAC is constantly engaging a dialogue to several stakeholders such as the airlines, tourism councils and local government units telling them that Clark airport is open for business.
“We are inviting more stakeholders to participate in the business of Clark and most especially the airlines,” he said.
Tanjuatco also said he will invite Thailand air carriers to consider Clark airport by launching additional routes in order to contribute in the development of the airport.
“Once I get back to Thailand, rest assured that I will convey my invitations to them (airlines) to take a look at Clark airport,” he said.
At present, there are only six airlines operating in this airport: Qatar Airways with daily flights to Doha; Dragonair with
three flights weekly from Hong Kong; Asiana Airlines with daily flights from Seoul; Air Asia Berhad with four flights weekly from Kuala Lumpur; Jin Air with daily flights from Seoul; and Tiger Airways with daily flights from Singapore.
