BAGUIO CITY—Officials of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines and the local government here have agreed that Loakan airport will not be closed to air traffic while efforts are being done to look for airline companies willing to fly to and from the city.
Mayor Mauricio Domogan and CAAP director-general Jim Sydiongco agreed to closely work together to sustain the operations of Loakan airport.
“We agreed that Loakan airport will not be closed to air traffic while we will be closely working for the continued development of the facilities and addressing the problems on intrusions and animal and pedestrian traffic, among others,” Domogan siad.
He said CAAP was able to identify alleged intrusions made by residents in some portions of the Loakan airport.
CAAP will take charge of the improvement of the access road leading to the community on the other side of the airport. It will also convince residents to maximize the use of the access road from the Philippine Military Academy area to their houses.
Domogan said CAAP officials also assured him that once the local government is able to find an airline company to service the Baguio-Manila-Baguio, Baguio-Clark Baguio, and other destination routes in the Visayas and Mindanao, the agency will accomplish the requirements for its planes to fly the desired routes that use the Loakan airport.
Earlier, the Cordillera Regional Development Council passed a resolution requesting CAAP to fund the rehabilitation and upgrade of the Loakan airport amounting to at least P420 million to help convince airline companies to operate commercial flights daily.
In 2009, commercial operations of the Loakan airport were abandoned by airline companies that had been servicing the Baguio-Manila-Baguio route because of safety reasons, expensive air fare, and lack of demand.