THE Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has reopened the Baguio Airport to start catering to commercial flights by December.
According to the Baguio government, the airport is still used by the military and for commercial charters. However, the airport has been closed to scheduled commercial operations for more than a decade due to difficulties of landing at the port during bad weather.
Surveys are being conducted by the CAAP and the Philippine Air Lines (PAL) to look for obstructions that need to be removed from the airport’s area to allow smooth operations, and the city government is also processing the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) needed to proceed with the project.
CAAP says in a statement it has allocated money to upgrade the passenger terminal, lengthen the runway by 100m and for an instrument landing system (ILS).
The airport’s runway is only 1,802m-long, making landing, especially for bigger planes more difficult.
Philippine Airlines’ PAL Express is set to cater to the airport. PAL Express operates 50 and 80-seat De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Dash 8-300/400 turboprop planes.
Operations for commercial flights in the airport were previously stopped in 2009 after airline operators raised safety issues and the absence of sufficient landing instruments to guide pilots.
