(BACK TO BUSYNESS. Passengers swarm the check-in counters as Clark airport operations reopen Wednesday afternoon. Photo courtesy of CIAC-Communications Dept.)
CLARK FREEPORT — With earthquake-collapsed ceilings now repaired, the Clark International Airport (CIA) here resumed “full operations” Wednesday afternoon but left to airlines how to deal with the backlog since Monday’s earthquake.
In a press briefi ng, Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) president Jaime Melo also said the resumption of full operations were slated at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
He advised affected passengers, who were given airline telephone numbers at airline desks in front of the terminal during the flights’ suspension, to get in touch with their airlines for updated flight schedules.
Melo said that since last Monday after the quake, as many as 120 flights were cancelled, affecting an average of 12,000 passengers per day.
This, even as structural engineers are now finding out whether the ceilings which collapsed, mostly at the check-in area, were substandard, he said.
“If the materials and construction were substandard, we will ask the terminal contractor to shoulder the cost of the repairs,” Melo noted. The repairs would reportedly cost some P30 million.
He said that in the meantime, CIAC is spending for the repair requirements so as to immediately enable the airport to resume operations which were immediately suspended after the earthquake last Monday.
Melo said other parts of the airport, such as the runways, taxiways and tower, did not sustain any serious damage.
The passenger terminal, referred to in CIAC records as “passenger terminal expansion Phase 2,” was completed in 2013 by E.M. Cuerpo, Inc. at the cost of P417 million.
The expansion was meant to increase the annual passenger capacity of the airport to four million people from the previous 2.5 million.
Records also showed that last year, the same firm was awarded by CIAC another contract costing P48.5 million for the “improvement of corporate office building.”
Melo said a test flight was conducted yesterday morning to ensure that all facilities at the airport were functioning properly. “Our primary concern is safety,” he added.
He also said that the effects of the earthquake on the airport has not changed the schedule for the privatization of the Clark airport by the middle of this year.
Last December, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), in partnership with the Department of Transportation, awarded the operations and maintenance (O&M) contract for the Clark airport to a consortium which includes Changi Airport Group.
Amid controversies on the conduct of bidding, the BCDA said the National Economic and Development Authority Investment Coordination Committee had confirmed the award before it was announced.
