CLARK FREEPORT—Metrojet Limited, a business aviation service provider based in Hong Kong, on Wednesday started work on its P1.3-billion business aviation and hangar maintenance facility here.
Metrojet officials led the groundbreaking ceremony for the 26,000-square-meter state-of-the-art facility at the Clark International Airport’s Civil Aviation Complex.
Bruce Watson, Metrojet’s chief operating officer, said the facility was the company’s largest investment in the Philippines and would be completed in the first quarter of 2020.
“We at Metrojet are strengthening our footprint in Southeast Asia. The growing strategic importance of Clark with its freedom of operations and freeport zone enables us to provide our clients with a high quality and very competitive hangar parking and maintenance facility in the region,” Watson said in a statement.
He said the launching came at a time when locations such as Hong Kong and Singapore experience capacity constraints and had become increasingly expensive.
With over 7,100 square meters of hangar floor space, the facility can accommodate up to 10 long-range business jets and Boeing business jets or Airbus corporate jets.
Watson said the facility would include a typhoon-proof structure and an aviation specific fire suppression system.
“As aviation and aircraft maintenance services continue to be in high demand, we’re grateful to the Philippine authorities for supporting this investment as part of the economic and innovative growth of Clark airport,” said Dwyn Jones, regional manager of Metrojet’s operational excellence and special projects.
With a dedicated taxiway and parking ramp of over 11,000 sqm, the facility will provide secure and private aircraft parking, maintenance and FBO services, Jones said.
She said the facility would not only help Metrojet provide high-quality aircraft services to its clients but would also generate local jobs.
Vince Dizon, president and chief executive officer of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), said the ongoing expansion of CRK would position it as a premier international gateway to the Philippines.
“I am optimistic that this will bode well for Metrojet’s new investment in Clark and for future investors from the aviation industry,” Dizon said. —JOANNA ROSE AGLIBOT