LOW-COST carrier Philippines AirAsia, Inc. is eyeing to restore its hub in Clark by the fourth quarter of the year, its chief executive officer said on Monday.
“Once travel restrictions ease and demand picks up soon, we are eyeing to strategically restore AirAsia’s Clark hub hopefully by Q4 of 2021,” Philippines AirAsia Chief Executive Officer Ricardo P. Isla said in an e-mailed statement.
Mr. Isla said the new passenger terminal building of Clark International Airport “will definitely boost our initiatives for a stronger rebound post pandemic.”
The new terminal building — built by Megawide Construction Corp. and GMR Infrastructure Ltd. — can accommodate up to 12.2 million passengers annually. The Clark airport previously operated at an annual passenger capacity of 4.2 million.
AirAsia said it started its Philippine operations in Clark in March 2012.
“Pre-pandemic, Philippines AirAsia flew to 10 domestic and three international destinations from Clark namely, Cagayan de Oro, Caticlan, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Puerto Princesa, Tacloban, Incheon, Kaohsiung, and Taipei,” it said.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte and several government officials led the inspection of the newly completed terminal building of the Clark airport on July 17.
“This structure before us reflects the administration’s unyielding commitment to improve the quality of life of every Filipino by providing big-ticket infrastructure projects, such as this, that will improve connectivity, mobility, create jobs, and disperse economic activity to the regions,” Mr. Duterte said in his speech.
Clark International Airport has long been singled out as an alternative gateway to decongest Ninoy Aquino International Airport, which accommodated more than 39.5 million passengers in 2016, way above its 30.5-million capacity. — Arjay L. Balinbin