Five years ago today, the Filipino subsidiary of Southeast Asia’s largest low-cost carrier graced the skies of the Clark International Airport with its signature red planes en route to the island of Kalibo, Aklan.
A year after however, it decided to leave the north, and focus on the capital to support its then-newly acquired company’s dwindling operations.
Now that its top line is stabilizing—thanks to years spent in increasing efficiencies, cost rationalizations and a management revamp—it is ready to go back to its birthplace, and once again help spur tourism and trade in the north.
“We are thrilled to be painting Clark’s skies red again,” Philippines AirAsia CEO Dexter M. Comendador said during the inaugural flight of its Clark-Kalibo route on Monday. “We are now building Clark again.”
He said his group, born in Clark in 2012, sees the airport as the only area left where it could expand its operations near Manila, whose main international gateway is riddled with slot constraints and air-traffic congestion.
“AirAsia believes in Clark. We established our base of operations here, and launched commercial flights in 2012 with only two planes, and now, we have a fleet of 14 jets. We aim to expand and grow our operations here in the next five years,” Comendador said. “We can only expand here in Clark.” After launching thrice-weekly flights from Clark to Kalibo, the airline will also start flying to Davao from Clark on April 22.
“AirAsia was with us in the past, but it decided to move to Manila in recent years. During its stay here, it contributed a lot in terms of passenger volume, specifically in 2013, when we posted a record of about 1.3 million passengers,” Clark International Airport Corp. President Alexander S. Cauguiran said. “I hope it could stay for good here at Clark. Hopefully, AirAsia will not only be flying domestic here, but also to major cities in Asia.”
Comendador vowed to connect Clark to other major Philippine destinations, like Cebu and Puerto Princesa, when the time is ripe. The company will also launch international services to East Asia.
“I will try to connect to our present international destinations, like Taipei, China and Korea,” he said. “We are growing the airport to prepare it as one of our central hubs.”
Clark is seen as the immediate saving grace for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, which has been operating at overcapacity for almost two years now.
But local carriers have shied away from launching flights or expanding their operations in Clark due to the lack of full-service facilities, its distance from the capital and the dearth in mass transit going to Manila, among others.
The government has programmed a P2.8-billion budget for the expansion of the airport, which will open its new terminal four years from now.
Several groups have offered to develop Clark through unsolicited proposals.
Claiming its P187-billion offer is “fully compliant” with the requirements of the build-operate-transfer law, the consortium of Filinvest Development Corp. and JG Summit Holdings Inc.’s proposal involves the modernization of the airport under a five-decade concession, and will start with an initial capacity for 8 million passengers per year.
Its proposal, based on the Aeroport de Paris master plan prepared for Clark in 2015, also allows the airport to expand its terminals and runways to easily accommodate for traffic growth over the next 50 years.
The P250-billion proposal of GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. involves the development of the airport in six phases, leading to a total annual passenger capacity of 100 million per year.
Under a 50-year development plan, it aims to build two terminals and three runways, two of which will be independent in an 850,000-square-meter land. The plan also involves the construction of an integrated railway connection from Manila, similar to the one in Delhi, India.
This unsolicited offer is at no cost to the government, will not require any subsidy, guarantee or mandatory movement of airlines from Naia to Clark.
Instead, the proponent “committed to pay the government annually a share of the airport revenues over the concession period.”
Metro Pacific Investments Corp. is also readying its own unsolicited proposal, even as it waits for a public tender to take place.
The government wants to place contract to develop Clark under public bidding. It will be done through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme. The website of the agency, however, did not enumerate the specific details of the contract.
Clark Civil Aviation Complex, located within the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga, covers an area of approximately 2,367 hectares with a 3,200-meter long runway and associated taxiways, aircraft parking apron, a passenger terminal building and related facilities. It has two runways in parallel configuration.
The airport logged in a total of 6,205 international and domestic flights with 950,732 passengers for local and foreign routes in 2016.
Although underutilized, Clark has a local catchment area with an estimated population of 23 million. It also serves passengers from Manila, and those with connecting flights from Cebu, Davao, and other local destinations.
