THROUGH the efforts of Sen. Loren Legarda and Gov. Rhodora “Dodod” Cadiao, the stagnant Evelio B. Javier Airport in San Jose de Buenavista, Antique was rehabilitated to the tune of P140 million. As a result, its 1.2- kilometer runway may now accommodate commercial planes.
The inaugural flight of the 86-seater PAL Express from San Jose, Antique to Clark Airport in Angeles City, Pampanga should have taken off on Oct. 28. For whatever reason, however, it did not push through and has been rescheduled to Dec. 16, 2018.
Methinks that for the new route to click, it would have to be cheaper than the usual Iloilo-Manila route. But while it’s probably a problem solved, what about the marketability of the new route? Since previous attempts to revitalize the Antique airport with planes flying out to Manila had failed, why should the Clark destination be any better? Considering that very few Antiqueños go to Pampanga, the route would mainly serve as jump-off point by bus to neighboring provinces and Metro Manila.
If I guess right, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has permanently diverted smaller Manila-bound airplanes to Clark to decongest the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The idea might have worked, but not convenient to passengers concerned.
As an Antiqueño, I truly wish for the new route to succeed. I therefore looked for the flight schedules on the internet. I discovered that Manila-bound busses are already available at Clark with designated stopping points, and vice-versa. The ride would take an average of an hour and a half.
Two flights a week – or four flights later if feasible – come and go every Tuesday and Sunday. The flight leaves Clark at 6 a.m. and arrives in San Jose at 7:20 a.m.; and then departs from San Jose at 7:40 a.m. and arrives at Clark at 9 a.m.
While I have my doubt on the “irresistibility” of the 6 a.m. Clark-to-San Jose schedule, I truly wish for the success of the new route for old times’ sake. It would eventually take getting used to.
Today’s generation of Antiqueños who are accustomed to going all the way to Iloilo City to board a plane to Manila will no doubt be surprised to know that regular San Jose-Manila flights on PAL planes had been around in the 1950s.
Just for the experience, my great grandpa Catalino got me to ride with him on a 15-minute “sight-seeing” flight over the seas and mountains around Antique. I was probably four years old.
In the late 1960s, however, PAL – until then the only commercial airliner – abandoned the Antique route because the airport was not big enough for jet planes which had become the standard means of air transportation.
There were times in the 1990s when PAL and new competitors revived the routes using upgraded propeller planes, but the passengers were too few to break even.
Governor Cadiao has a more nostalgic reason for rehabilitating the Antique airport. In those days when PAL was actively recruiting beautiful stewardesses for its international flights, she applied and made it. By the year 2007, she had travelled for free around the world.
In that year she went on leave to be by the bedside of her dying father, Josue Cadiao, who had been governor of Antique and had wished she would be one later, too. By a fluke of fate, she found herself running for the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Antique and won.
Her consequential rise to higher positions – now governor and running for re-election – has been swift. If there is need for her to fly again, it’s to be in the role of a passenger flying from Antique to Clark. (hvego31@gmail.com /PN)
