Loakan airport may open for commercial flights by December 2022

Photo Courtesy || PAL

Cordillera - Baguio city's Loakan airport may soon catering domestic flights starting in December this year pending the complete rehabilitation and upgrading of the airport.

Department of Transportation (DoTr) assured to the city government officials the rehabilitation and upgrading of the airport to meet the requirements needed to operate domestic flights.

According to DoTr and Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), a P68 million budget will be allocated for the rehabilitation of the airport terminal and installing of Instrument Landing System (ILS) that guides the pilots maneuver the planes in and out of the airport even during bad weather conditions.

CAAP will also upgrading the runway by extending the length by at least 100 meters and putting up drainage system. 

They will also clearing out 35 natural obstructions that were determined to be inside the buffer zone.

The city government has reminded residents within the airport's buffer zone to voluntarily remove their structures or let the city government to demolish them. 

Some 110 structures within the declared 150-meter buffer zone of the Loakan airport were already issued the demolition notices by the City Buildings and Architecture Office (CBAO) as part of the local government’s efforts to free the airport from obstructions that will pave the way for its opening for commercial operation, according to Baguio - PIO.