BAGUIO CITY: City officials announced that the Philippine Airlines (PAL) and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) are fast-tracking the rehabilitation of the Loakan Airport to meet the target reopening of commercial flights by this December in time for the Christmas holidays.

Barely two months before the target launch of commercial flights, city officials were informed by CAAP and PAL that they are now polishing the operation of domestic trips from Baguio City to Cebu City and vice versa in a tourism council meeting held recently.

The local government is thankful to Secretary Jaime Bautista of the Department of Transportation (DoTR) for the agency’s commitment to improving the airport to strengthen the city government’s economic recovery efforts.

The CAAP has completed its survey and is now addressing technical issues while the DoTR is working on the issuance of the required environmental compliance certificate from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

On the part of the local government unit, it will make sure that the city will have an enabling environment for the operation of commercial flights by removing identified structural obstructions — which is a big responsibility, but people have to understand that this is for our economic recovery.

City officials claimed that human and vehicular traffic across the runway will not be allowed anymore once the airport operates. This is in compliance with the requirements of the CAAP for safety reasons.

The DoTR and CAAP infused P68 million for the rehabilitation of the airport terminal including the upgrade of the instrument landing system that will guide aircrafts in maneuvering in and out of the airport even during bad weather conditions.

City officials said that the CAAP already addressed the concern about the shortage of the runway’s length by at least 100 meters from the present 1.683 meters.

City officials were told the present runway is sufficient enough to accommodate turboprop aircraft like the Q400 Dash Bombardier which is an 80-seater plane.

The local government hopes that once the airport is operating commercially, more airlines will invest for more flights to and from Baguio City.