A panel in the House of Representatives asked concerned government officials to prepare a master plan for a proposal to use the Clark International Airport as an alternative to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
At a hearing Wednesday conducted by the House committee on transportation, chaired by Catanduanes Rep. Cesar Sarmiento, congressmen ordered Transportation officials, in coordination with the Aeronautics Board, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, and the Clark International Airport Corp., to submit to Congress a master plan by January 2016.
“We have been discussing this for a long time, but we ended up discussing things without any output. If you could assemble and meet and present a master plan, we could have it submitted to the proper authorities for immediate action,” Sarmiento said.
Sarmiento said the House was considering Clark as an alternative airport amid problems of congestion and flight delays at the Naia.
He said his panel would like to address the issue ahead of the Christmas holidays when passengers fly in and out of the country.
Sarmiento cited the experience of an airlines last Christmas rush when a number of passengers were stranded at the Naia due to overbooking.
“We called this meeting in anticipation of December when we would celebrate the first anniversary of the fiasco. We welcome collecting the P52 million by way of fines. We don’t want that to happen again,” Sarmiento said.
Civil Aeronautics Board Chief Legal Officer Wyrlou Samodio told the hearing that more studies are needed in using Clark airport as an alternative to Naia.
“It’s a long process we have to undergo before everything becomes feasible. Logistics wise, it’s not easy to transfer people from one place to another. I think we have to take a thorough study, or at least prepare Clark before we transfer flights from Clark to Manila,” Samodio told lawmakers.