Bacolod prepares for int’l flights

CEBU, Philippines - While the bidding for the P20-billion expansion program for the Bacolod-Silay airport is being set, preparations for the facility to receive international flights have already started, according to Bacolod City lone district Representative Evelio Leonardia.

Leonardia, senior vice chair of the House committee on transportation, inspected the airport last week. He said new immigration booths that will process incoming and departing passengers on international flights had been installed already.

The booths are part of the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine system “we have been lobbying for to prepare the airport for international flights,” Leonardia said in a statement.

He, however, said these are not yet part of the P20-billion airport expansion program for Bacolod-Silay that the National Economic Development Authority recently approved.

“Since the CIQ is one of the things we can immediately do to encourage direct international flights, we’re doing it ahead of the expansion,” he said.

The CIQ had been one of the concerns of a South Korean group that had wanted to schedule several flights directly to Bacolod, said Leonardia.

The congressman said that, since last year, the Korean group has been working with him and his consultant on tourism affairs, John Orola, to facilitate these flights.

Kim Hong Ki, in a letter to Leonardia last August, said they expected to have 23 direct flights to Bacolod City from Incheon in South Korea, starting December this year to March next year.

At 150 passengers per flight, this is expected to bring in an estimated 3,400 Korean tourists directly to Bacolod, Leonardia said.  (FREEMAN)