International passenger volume at Clark up

The Clark International Airport is well on its way to serving over a million passengers in 2012, the most in its history, officials said Thursday.

Clark International Airport Corp. president and CEO Victor Jose I. Luciano said international passenger volume at the Clark International Airport rose to 160,847 in January and February, a 38-percent increase year on year.

The growth in passenger volume has resulted in the growth of gross revenue earnings for the state-owned airport corporation as well, increasing collections in January to P37.34 million, or an increase of 24 percent, over January 2011 collections of P29.9 million.

Luciano said this came mainly from the 46-percent increase in passenger terminal fees of P6.167 million.

He said domestic passenger volume is expected to increase in 2012 with the slated start of four domestic flights by Airphil Express on March 29 to Cebu, Puerto Princesa, Davao and Kalibo.

Luciano said AirAsia Philippines, a subsidiary of Malaysia’s Air Asia Berhad, will also launch domestic flights from its Clark hub to Davao and Kalibo on March 28.

By May, South East Asian Airlines (Seair) also plans to start flights from Clark to Kalibo, as well as international flights from Clark to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, and daily flights to Bangkok.

Seair currently flies out of Clark thrice daily to Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok.