SBMA hastens equipment upgrade to revive Subic airport

The idle Subic Bay International Airport in the Subic Bay Freeport in Zambales is being readied for rehabilitation to boost tourism and trade in Central Luzon. —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) is fast-tracking the purchase of aviation equipment to revive the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA), according to top SBMA officials.

In a report made during a “state of the freeport” address, SBMA Administrator Wilma Eisma and SBMA Chair Martin Diño said the equipment upgrade would cost an estimated $40 million.

“We need to re-establish SBIA’s world-class stature,” Eisma said.

“We will launch an aggressive marketing campaign to promote and revive domestic and international flight operations,” she said.

According to Eisma, 300 to 600 Chinese tourists arrive every week at Clark International Airport aboard flights of South East Asian Airlines (Seair) and most of them visit this freeport.

She said instead of returning to Clark for their flights home, the Chinese tourists could fly out through SBIA.

Diño said the SBMA had earmarked P300 million for upgrading airport facilities in addition to a P540-million appropriation that had been proposed for the project.

He said the airport upgrade would require the installation of new aviation equipment, like instrument landing systems, Doppler very high frequency omni range, distance measuring equipment, nondirectional beacon and Global Positioning System-radio navigation system.

He said part of the airport rehabilitation was expanding the length and width of two runways to connect SBIA to a new container terminal.

“Each runway will be 3,800 meters long and 200 meters wide,” he said.

Courier giant FedEx had made SBIA its Asian hub before shutting it down and relocating to China in 2009.

Sen. Richard Gordon, former SBMA chair, had said the government wasted the chance offered by Subic and Clark airports, as well as Subic’s seaport, to generate employment and investments in Luzon by its failure to maximize these major infrastructure assets.

Eisma and Diño laid down other plans for the free port.

Eisma said part of her 10-point agenda for the free port was the fight against corruption and smuggling.

Diño presented infrastructure plans which he said would reduce travel time of cargo trucks and passenger vehicles to and from Northern Luzon and Metro Manila. —ALLAN MACATUNO