ILOILO City – The Iloilo Airport, built in 2007, was designed to accommodate 1.2 million passengers a year.
“Now it is serving 2.4 million passengers. Indeed an expansion is much needed,” said House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The airport, located in Cabatuan, Iloilo, has a 13,700-square-meter main passenger terminal. It is divided into three levels: arrivals and baggage claim on the first floor, check-in on the second floor and departures on the third floor.
During a visit here on Thursday, Arroyo brought one good news: the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) secured the support of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to proceed with the expansion.
Getting the DILG onboard was a crucial step for the proposal to be forwarded to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), explained Arroyo.
Classified as an international airport, the Iloilo Airport is the first airport in both Western Visayas and the island of Panay to be built to international standards, and it is also considered to be the primary gateway into the region.
According to Arroyo, the departments of Transportation, Labor, and Justice already signed the CAAP Board Resolution granting Original Proponent Status (OPS) to the unsolicited proponent for the airport’s expansion.
“I would like to extend my sincerest congratulations to CAAP for finally getting the green light to start the expansion of the airport,” said Arroyo.
CAAP, she said, may now proceed to subject the proposal to a Swiss Challenge [third parties would be allowed to make better offers to the unsolicited offer made by the original proponent; then the original proponent gets the right to counter-match any superior offers given by the third party]. The goal is to ensure that the government gets the best offer.
“It is one step closer to bringing comfort, safety and convenience to one of the busiest airports in the country,” said Arroyo.
Arroyo previously conducted an oversight hearing at the House of Representatives on the status of the Iloilo Airport to determine what expansion projects were needed.
This led to the fast-tracking of the signing of the CAAP Board Resolution for the airport expansion.
The Iloilo Airport opened to commercial traffic on June 14, 2007.
The airport complex consists of a single runway, various administrative and maintenance buildings, waste-sorting and water-treatment facilities, a power-generating station, a cargo terminal, and a main passenger terminal.
Its location on the Tomas Confesor Highway, a major highway traversing Panay Island, makes the airport accessible from all parts of Iloilo and Panay by road, while its proximity to the currently defunct Panay Railways network could potentially link the airport to the rest of Panay by rail.
The Iloilo Airport has one primary 2,500-meter runway 45 meters wide. It can support wide-bodied aircraft such as the Airbus A330, Airbus A340, Airbus A350 XWB, Boeing 777(with reduced payload for the -300 series or -200 series), Boeing 767, Boeing 757, Antonov An-124 Ruslan, McDonnell Douglas MD-11and Boeing 787.
Runway lights and an Instrument Landing System were installed, making the airport capable of supporting low-visibility and night landings under any weather condition.
Three jet bridges protrude from the passenger terminal above a 48,000-square-meter apron, enabling the airport to handle up to six aircraft simultaneously./PN
