BAGUIO CITY – Transportation and Communication Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya announced that the 1.6-kilometer Loakan airport will still remain for general aviation to support the air transport requirements of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and other major businesses in the city.
Secretary Abaya said that matter on the commercial operation of the airport will be left to the discretion of the commercial airlines wanting to service the Manila-Baguio-Manila air route.
“We have to maintain the Loakan airport for general aviation but it will now be up to the airline companies if they want to service the route amidst geographic issues and the absence of appropriate airport facilities,” Secretary Abaya added.
However, the DOTC official failed to outline whether or not the government will be implementing projects that will upgrade the units of equipment in the airport to convince commercial airline companies to consider servicing the route.
Earlier, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said that the rehabilitation of the Loakan airport is not part of the projects that it lined up for the development of the different domestic and international airports in the different parts of the country.
It can be recalled that the Regional Development Council (RDC) in the Cordillera, the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Baguio (HRAB) and the Baguio Convention and Visitors Bureau (BCVB) petitioned the national government to consider upgrading the Loakan airport facilities and rehabilitating the same so that commercial airline companies will be convinced to service the Manila-Baguio-Manila air route which will help boost the growth of the local tourism industry as high-end visitors will be convinced to make their side trips to the Summer Capital because of the presence of the airport.
Commercial airline companies have stopped servicing the Manila-Baguio-Manila air route because of the dangerous situation caused by the inadequate instrument flight landing equipment that would guide pilots in maneuvering their aircrafts to land safely even during times when there is zero visibility in the area.
Baguio City was deprived of hosting several meetings of ministers for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Manila last November because of the dangerous situation in the Loakan airport which lacks the sufficient state-of-the-art aviation equipment beneficial to commercial and cargo aircrafts wanting to land in the airport.
The RDC-CAR had endorsed the rehabilitation and upgrading of the Loakan airport in order to allow the resumption of commercial flights to and from the city and for foreign and domestic high-end visitors to consider visiting the country’s Summer Capital for them to be able to contribute in the robust growth of the local tourism industry in the future.
However, the national government never acted on the request from the RDC-CAR for still unexplained reasons.
It was learned that the CAAP recommended the total closure of the airport from pedestrian, vehicular and even animal traffic to pave the way for the upgrading of the airport and that residents in the opposite villages will pass through an alternate route to prevent the occurrence of any untoward incident that would pose a serious threat to life and limb.
By Dexter A. See
