CDC gets P250-M loan for airport upgrade

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — The state-owned Clark Development Corp. (CDC) has received a P250-million loan from the Philippine Veterans Bank (PVB) for the upgrading of the taxiways and parking area of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) here.

"The project is necessary as the taxiways and parking site at the airport were built by the US Air Force and designed for military aircraft, not the much heavier wide-bodied commercial aircraft," said CDC executive vice president Victor Jose Luciano.

The taxiways are to be upgraded to bear the impact of aircraft weighing up to 1.2 million pounds.

The P250-million loan, packaged by the Investment and Capital Corp. of the Phils. (ICCP), is the first to be obtained by the CDC for any purpose. It is payable in five years, with a two-year grace period.

Luciano said the payment would be derived from increased revenues expected from aeronautical and other airport fees to be generated from the improved DMIA.

He said the upgrade would boost the viability of the DMIA which has modern facilities, including two parallel runways designed to accommodate the US Space Shuttle.

Since last April, the DMIA has been hosting the intra-Asian hub of the United Parcel Service (UPS), with five flights nightly. UPS has invested an initial $300 million.

This month, the UPS is expected to mount seven flights daily to and from Bombay, Sydney, Hong Kong, Inchang, Narita, Taipei and other major Asian destinations. — Ding Cervantes