SBMA eyeing aircraft repair facility for Subic airport

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority’s (SBMA) airport conversion plan has taken a new turn due to the request of the Department of National Defense (DND) to use it as a military base.

SBMA Chair Roberto Garcia said his agency has prepared another plan to maximize the idle Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA), which spans 200 hectares here.

“We have a Plan B for the airport, which is to turn it into an aircraft repair and general aviation facility,” he said.

Garcia earlier said Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin wrote him about plans to transfer the Philippine Air Force (PAF) base from the Basa Air Base in Floridablanca, Pampanga, to SBIA.

Garcia said he had presented the tourism project for the airport to different government agencies, including the DND, but this recent development would stop SBMA’s plan to turn SBIA into a family-oriented, integrated, international tourist destination, like Sentosa Island in Singapore.

The conversion plan consists of building convention centers, business process outsourcing parks, a science and technology center, casinos, theme parks, a golf course and luxury villas in the airport complex.

A Philippine Information Agency (PIA) report said the DND has been eyeing SBIA “as a forward base for the joint operations of the PAF and the United States Air Force Pacific alliance to maintain regional balance in light of territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea.”

Prime

The SBIA complex is a prime piece of real estate and was formerly the Cubi Point Air Station of the US Navy.

Garcia said the DND would not be able to use all areas in the airport complex so the SBMA would turn unused sections into an aircraft repair facility.

“That area is too big for them. They won’t be able to use all of it. We could make it into an aircraft repair facility, [attract locators involved in] general aviation services, jet charters and medical evacuation,” he said.

Garcia said he was meeting with representatives of aircraft manufacturer Airbus and German airline Lufthansa to explore the possibility of tapping SBIA for their operations and other needs.

When asked, Garcia said his new plan for the airport could coexist with the DND’s plan.

But for the DND to use SBIA as a military base, he said the agency has to build new hangars there.

“The DND would have to pay for all that, if they push through with their plans. The SBMA won’t take on another debt for that. They want to do that; they have to pay for it,” Garcia said.

Garcia, in an earlier interview, said the plan to convert SBIA was one of the “out of the box” solutions to attract more investments to Subic and increase its revenues.

SBIA was home to courier giant Federal Express until 2008, when the company relocated to China.

But Garcia described the airport as a “cash drain” for SBMA.

He said the airport complex has been underutilized, causing its income to drop from P255.2 million in 2005 to P36.6 million in 2011, and netting, after debt servicing, an average loss of P150 million since 2010.  Robert Gonzaga, Inquirer Central Luzon