CLARK FREEPORT—The Clark International Airport (CIA) marked a milestone last Wednesday when it served its one millionth passenger in just 10 months.
Eddierose Navarro, 28, was identified as the airport’s one millionth passenger and received a free roundtrip fare to Singapore via Philippines’ Air Asia, said Victor Jose Luciano, president and chief executive officer of the Clark International Airport Corp.
Navarro, a resident of San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan, also received a free overnight stay at Resorts World in Pasay City and Holiday Inn here and would be exempted from paying the terminal fee at CIA for a year.
Navarro, who is married to an Australian, arrived from Hong Kong via an AirAsia flight that arrived at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.
With the rapid increase in the departure of international and domestic travelers through the CIA, airport authorities now expect to serve five million passengers by November since 2003, Luciano said.
He said serving a million passengers in less than 10 months is “one of the signs of very bright prospects not only for the CIA but for the market it serves in central and northern Luzon as link to international markets as well as spur domestic activity.”
The year 2011 closed with 767,109 passengers, he said, estimating that Clark would serve 1.4 million travelers by end of 2012.
The government rehabilitated the CIA after the United States Air Force in 1991 left the 2,500-hectare facility now known as the Clark Freeport.
The first million mark was reached in June 2007, after over four years of operations by airlines led by Asiana Airlines beginning 2003, Luciano said in a separate statement.
But passenger volumes have been breaching the 500,000 mark yearly as low-cost carriers AirAsia Berhad, Cebu Pacific, Seair, AirAsia Philippines, AirPhil Express and Jin Air serve Southeast Asian destinations through Clark.
Dragonair, a subsidiary of Cathay Pacific, also operates through Clark.