THE STATE-run Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC) is pushing for the release of P2.89 billion for the development of the Clark International Airport.
This as the number of flights and passengers have increased from three years ago.
The CIAC management is working double time for the download of the first tranche of the P2.89 billion funds from the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
The proposed Terminal-2 budget is under the General Appropriation Acts of 2015 and 2016 and, as provided by law, will be reverted to the national treasury if not utilized by December this year.
Executive Order (EO) 64 signed by President Benigno Aquino III on December 21, 2011 transferred CIAC from the Office of the President and made the latter an attached agency of DOTr.
In 2016, CIAC logged in a total of 6,205 international and domestic flights with 950,732 passengers for local and foreign routes. The number of passengers is expected to increase this year as more airlines are mounting flights at CRK, possibly including routes to North America.
Earlier, the government announced the construction of a new Clark airport terminal―the first of four design phases―for domestic and international passengers with an 8-million-visitor capacity that will be finished before the term of President Rodrigo Duterte ends. This is part of the Duterte administration’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ infrastructure development thrust in the next five-and-a-half years.
The new Clark airport terminal, situated in the 2,367-hectare Clark Civil Aviation Complex, is designed by the French firm Aéroports de Paris and occupies 82,000 square meters with a capacity of eight million passengers which may be later expanded to accommodate a total of 16 million passengers.