“The continued increase in flight operations of major airlines at the Clark International Airport (IATA Code: CRK) confirms the viability of the national government’s dual airport policy,” said CIAC president and chief executive officer Alexander Cauguiran.
This, after International Air Transport Association (IATA) director general Alexandre de Junic was reported to be against fully developing Clark as the country’s premiere gateway, claiming that Clark is too far from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila. This boosted the proposal of San Miguel Corp. to have a new international airport built in Bulacan instead.
But Cauguiran noted that “the number of Clark’s weekly flights reached 282 since Pres. Duterte called for greater utilization of Clark International Airport and directed dual airport policy of operating both Clark and the NAIA in Manila.”
“More airlines are now appreciating Clark’s marketability amid its increasing number of local destinations,” Cauguiran said.
“Clark has already established domestic connectivity to major islands in the country as manifested by increased fl ight and passenger traffic,” he added.
Cauguiran also noted that Clark airport has already recorded 1.1 million passengers from January to October 31, 2017.”
“Passenger traffic is projected to reach 1.4 million by yearend even before the construction of the new passenger terminal and runway has begun,” he said.
“Clark is not competing with NAIA since Clark caters to passengers from Northern and Central Luzon while NAIA targets Metro manila and the southern population,” he stressed.
“Right now, we are tapping a goldmine by servicing our catchment population of 21.4 million potential passengers in all regions north of Metro Manila and airlines are appreciating this,” Cauguiran added.
Clark-Narita Meanwhile, Kazuhiro Ishida, Japan Airlines country manager to the Philippines, said his management team is impressed with the potential of Clark.
In a visit to this Clark airport, he said he would propose to JAL’s Tokyo headquarters the launching of Clark-Narita flights. JAL executives and CIAC officials have already discussed possible Clark-Narita flights via Jetstar Japan, a subsidiary of JAL which currently flies daily to Narita, Osaka and Nagoya from NAIA.
Cauguiran also cited negotiations for direct flights between Clark and the US, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Taiwan, and Thailand are ongoing.
He also said Clark serves a growing network of nine domestic and eight international destinations.
“Clark is connected to various global destinations via the networks of Emirates, Qatar, Cathay Pacific, Asiana, and China Eastern,” he added.
Cauguiran also said that the construction of a new passenger terminal would enable Clark airport to take in eight million passengers yearly. This, he said, would be a significant improvement to the current capacity of 4.2 million passengers per year.
