Clark Airport ready to takle in the biggest aircraft in the world
SAYS DMIA EXEC
Clark airport ready to take in world's biggest civilian jet
By Tonette Orejas
Central Luzon Desk
Last updated 08:32pm (Mla time) 10/11/2007
CLARK FREEPORT, Philippines -- The former United States military airport here can really accommodate the world's largest commercial passenger aircraft when it lands here on Friday.
Proof? The now Diosdado Macapagal International Airport need not have to disrupt the 10 flights of budget airlines when the Airbus A380 parks for four hours starting 11:40 a.m. as it winds up its trans-Pacific test flight, according to Victor Jose Luciano, president and chief executive officer of the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC).
"The DMIA is ready to take in the Airbus A380. When it comes around, the budget flights would not have any interruptions at all. We did not have to suspend or delay the low-cost flights," he said Thursday.
He said the DMIA can handle all these simultaneously because it has two 3.2-kilometer parallel runways.
The government inherited those from the 13th US Air Force, more known here as "jungle air force," that covered Northeast and Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean via Clark, its home base.
An old US Air Force (USAF) release said Clark's "runway with parallel taxiway … [was] suitable for the largest military or commercial transport in the USAF or naval inventory."
Until the USAF's pullout in 1991 following the Senate's decision not to renew the 1947 Philippine-US Military Bases Agreement, the 2,500-hectare Clark airport handled the US' C-17 Starlifter and the Russian-made Antonov "Condor" 124.
According to Luciano, the USAF rehabilitated the primary runway just a few months before the June 1991 eruptions of Mt. Pinatubo.
Major cleanup operations after the eruptions and the succeeding regular maintenance works kept the two runways in good service, he said.
On Friday, the Airbus A380 will park across the UPS (United Parcel Service) and CIAC headquarters. Budget planes will land and depart in front of the DMIA terminal.
Luciano said the advance party of Airbus A380 has assessed the DMIA to be "ready" for the event. "Everything is fully prepared," he said.
Dubbed the "Gentle Green Giant," Airbus A380 is described to be as tall as an eight-story building (79 feet) and as wide as football field (262 feet). The plane can seat 800 passengers.
Steered by two pilots from the Emirates, the plane will arrive with a 41-member crew. Its arrival here might turn out to be a tourism event as the public will be allowed to view it for free from a designated area.
Only 80 people will be allowed to board the plane and see its interiors for an hour.
During its stay at the DMIA, the airbus will "test airfield maneuvering, docking, ground-handling services and fueling to determine its compatibility with various airports in the world," Luciano said in a statement.
He called this "a once in a lifetime opportunity for the public to get a glimpse of the A380, which is expected to revolutionize the trend of air travel."
The event, he said, was important to CIAC officials because "it shows that DMIA is capable of handling new generation of large aircraft such as the A380."
Former president Fidel Ramos had issued an executive order making the DMIA the country's future premier international gateway. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo envisioned the DMIA to be a major anchor in the Subic-Clark megalogistics and services hub, linked to the Subic's airport and seaport through the P27-billion Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.
Since 2005, operations of low-cost airlines have increased DMIA's passengers to one million, indicating fresh life for this largely idle airport. Passenger capacity is expected to hit two million next year.
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