Manila Standard Today
2 Apr 2008
By Rendy Isip
CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga—Changi Airports International of Singapore is interested in managing the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport here in a bid to make it the country’s premier gateway.
A delegation led by the company’s vice president for strategic projects, Jose V.A. Pantangco, met recently with top officials of Clark International Airport Corp., led by its president and chief executive, Victor Jose Luciano.
“It has the potential for growth and we hope that we would be able to get involved in the development of this airport,” Pantangco said after a tour of the facilities.
The Singapore-based company hopes to increase capacity at the Clark airport from only 500,000 a year to at least two million a year once expansion of the terminal is completed.
In 2007, the airport registered over 533,000 domestic and international passengers, up from 480,000 passengers in 2006. It expects to serve over half a million passengers this year.
CAI is a subsidiary of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, which manages and invests in airports worldwide.
The Civil Aviation Authority is the owner-operator of Singapore’s Changi Airport, which has been named the “Best Airport of the World” for 20 consecutive years by Business Traveler magazine based in the UK.
Diosdado Macapagal Airport is home to several air carriers including Tiger Airways of Singapore, Air Asia of Malaysia, Asiana Airlines of Korea, and China Southern Airlines of China. Hong Kong Express recently started its three-times-a-week open chartered flights from Clark to Hong Kong, while Asian Spirit Airlines, the first local carrier to operate out of the airport, is set to launch its five-times-a-week flights between Incheon, South Korea, and Clark.
Local carriers such as Southeast Asian Airlines and Cebu Pacific Airways also operate at the airport.
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