Clark Airport operations moved to Q2 2021

Clark International Airport’s new passenger terminal is expected to commence full operations later than initially expected in 2021.

Private sector consortium Luzon International Premier Airport Development Corp. (Lipad), the operator of the Pampanga gateway, said it was preparing for dry-run operations for the “first entry” of domestic flights by the second quarter next year. This will be followed by the first international flights “toward the third quarter of the year.”The Department of Transportation (DOTr) announced last October that the gateway would begin operations by January 2021.

The structure of the new terminal itself was fully completed last September. It was designed to accommodate eight million passengers per year, double Clark Airport’s existing capacity. The DOTr previously said operations could not immediately begin as interiors of the structure need to be finished.

“Preparation and maintaining a solid rapport and constant coordination with our partners and stakeholders are just two of the most crucial factors to the successful opening of the new Clark International Airport,” Lipad CEO Bi Yong Chungunco said in a statement.

“That is why we, at Lipad, together with our partners at Changi Airports International, are leaving no stones unturned to ensure that the new terminal is ready and operational by 2021”, she added.

Lipad is principally led by conglomerates JG Summit Holdings and Filinvest Development Corp.

The consortium won the 25-year contract to maintain and operate the Clark Airport in 2018 and assumed operations of the facility in August the following year.

The new terminal was built by the consortium of Megawide Construction Corp. and India’s GMR Infrastructure, the same venture that operates the Mactan Cebu International Airport. It is a four-level edifice with a total of 110,000 square meters of floor area and 18 aero bridges. The existing terminal, which has a capacity of over four million passengers a year, will be decommissioned, the government previously announced.

The Clark Airport anchors the 9,450-hectare New Clark City, which will include government and business districts. The DOTr is also building a railway line that will link Manila and the Clark Freeport Zone. INQ