Clark airport passengers up

CLARK FREEPORT—The number of passengers using Clark International Airport (CIA) here has increased by 38 percent in January and February, an airport official said on Wednesday.

The increase, from 116,125 passengers in January and February last year to 160,847 passengers this year, indicated that CIA has become the airport of choice, said Victor Jose Luciano, president and chief executive officer of the Clark International Airport Corp., the state agency overseeing the development of CIA from a United States military airport into a civilian facility.

It carried the name Diosdado Macapagal International Airport from 2003 until the CIAC board renamed it CIA in October 2011 for the purpose of international branding. The Aquino administration had announced a plan to transfer to the CIA the operations of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Metro Manila. The CIA, at 2,500 hectares, is four times bigger than NAIA.

More passengers pushed CIAC’s gross revenue to P37.3 million in January from P30 million reported in the same period in 2011. A total of P6.2 million came from passenger terminal fees, Luciano said.

He expects the volume of domestic passengers to grow as soon as AirAsia Philippines and Airphil Express start local flights on March 28 and 29, respectively.

South East Asian Airlines (Seair) will fly to Kalibo in Aklan as well as Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia and Bangkok beginning May.

The CIA targets to serve a million passengers this year, or a 30 percent surge from 730,000 passengers in 2011.