UPS cargo planes parked at the Clark tarmac. Photo courtesy of Jojo Due
CLARK FREEPORT – As several international air-craft bound for typhoon-hit Hong Kong, Taipei and Shenzen, China sought temporary refuge at the Clark International Airport (CIA) here yesterday, the failure of Pres. Aquino’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) to even mention the airport has raised doubts on the government’s sincerity to fully develop it into the country’s major international gateway.
Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) president and chief executive officer Victor Jose Luciano said that as of noon yesterday, at least 10 cargo and passenger planes from various countries diverted to the CIA.
The aircraft included eight cargo aircraft of the United Parcel Service (UPS) including two Boeing 757, four Boeing 767, one MD-11 and one Being 747 and commercial air carriers of Hong Kong Express A-287 and Jet Aviation F-900LX aircraft. The UPS has a base in Shenzen.
“This shows Clark International Airport is ready 24/7 to accommodate diverted flights because we have the complete navigational facilities. Clark Airport can even accommodate 40 aircraft in our wide parking space here, Clark Airport is always ready,” Luciano stressed.
He said “all navigational facilities such as the Instrument Landing System (ILS) as well as the DVOR are working round the clock to guide all types of aircrafts landing at Clark airport.”
“These navigational facilities will soon be upgraded at the cost of P200 million. We are yet to bid the project,” Luciano added.
“The initial 252 passengers of one of the planes were billeted at the Fontana resort,” he said, amid reports that typhoon Vicente, which passed through the country as Ferdie, was expected yesterday to make a landfall in Western Guangdong in China.
Ruperto Cruz, chairman of the multi-sectoral Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) which had initiated the move to develop CIA as a main gateway way back in the 1990’s, said Clark’s accommodating such international aircraft even on emergency basis “reflected CIA’s capability to accommodate even modern wide-bodied aircraft.”
Cruz noted that while the SONA failed to mention any plans to fully develop CIA, the President had earlier announced support for plans for a $12 billion modern passenger terminal for the airport here to transform it into a major international gateway.
Cruz also said that the aircraft which made emergency landings here yesterday included big aircraft that could not be accommodated at NAIA. “The NAIA has no space for wide-bodied aircraft and is now only good for budget airlines,” he noted.
During his recent SONA, the President cited accomplishment and plans for existing and new airport in the provinces, as well as full rehabilitation of “structural defects” in NAIA 3.
Cruz noted that Clark was mentioned only with reference to a two elevated NLEX-SLEX connector up for completion by 2012, to reduce the trip between Clark and Calamba, Laguna to only one hour and 40 minutes.
Huge tarpaulin streamers put up by the PGKM at Clark’s gate along Friendship Avenue in Angeles City expressed suspicion that the DOTC’s takeover of the Clark airport was tinted with politics amid alleged plans of Roxas to run for president in 2016.
Cruz also questioned the DOTC’s allocation of P100 million feasibility study for the CIA as a wasteful “case of putting the cart before the horse.”
“So many buildings and many other aviation facilities have already risen and continue to rise on the Clark aviation complex, so a feasibility study seems preposterous at this point,” noted Cruz.
The P100 million was allocated by the DOTC from its funds.
