Gensan Opens First International Flight

22 November 2021

Flight Starts 9 December

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) has announced that it will fly repatriation flights from Kuala Lumpur to General Santos beginning December 9 next week as transport authorities open the airport as alternate international gateway for returning Filipinos and leisure travelers. It will also accommodate long regional flights from the Middle East.

Dexter Lee, PAL senior vice president and chief strategy and planning officer, said the group will add more flights from the Middle East, the United States, Australia, and various Asian countries to accommodate more Filipinos wanting to be in the Philippines for Christmas and holiday season.

The airline will use Airbus A321 for Kuala Lumpur route once a week, and Airbus A330 for middle east flights to General Santos.

The Inter Agency Task Force for Emerging and Infectious Diseases (IATF) approved last week the inclusion of General Santos as alternate international gateway for arriving passengers. It joins Panglao, Laoag, Subic, Clark, Davao, and Cebu as quarantine gateway airport in the country.

Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade earlier said during the airport terminal inauguration that it is being considered as alternate international gateway to increase arrival limits and capacity to the country leading up to the peak holiday season.

PAL clarified that Manila will still be the airline's main arrival hub, and shall only be rerouting some international flights as needed this holiday season.

The airline said that they are utilizing new ports of entry to accommodate more returning Filipinos and prevent cancellation of flights due to international arrival limits in NAIA.

DOTr Opens GenSan New Terminal

Fast-Tracked as Quarantine Gateway

24 September 2021

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has opened the ₱959 million new General Santos International Airport Passenger Terminal building (PTB) capable of handling two million passengers per annum yesterday, and is expediting completion of CIQ facilities for the inclusion of the newly rehabilitated and expanded airport terminal as among the alternate quarantine gateways for returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and international travelers.

DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade led the formal unveiling and inauguration of the city airport’s new passenger terminal building and other navigational facilities.

He said Philippine Airlines and some middle east airlines has been requesting the Philippine government to open General Santos international airport as quarantine gateway from airline passengers coming in from the Middle East.

Tugade said the proposal to increase daily quarantine capacity for returning OFWs to 4,000 daily is already with the National Task Force of the IATF for their consideration.

The daily limit for returning OFWs is currently peg at 3,500 returning Filipinos with Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) accounting for 2,000 passengers, while Cebu, Davao, Clark and Subic is taking 1,500.

“If we will increase the cap, we need to expand our gateways and not limit them to Clark, Cebu, and NAIA. We can include GenSan among the gateways for travelers from Doha who are going to Manila,” he said in a press conference.

According to Tugade, other possible alternate gateways proposed are Laoag International Airport in Ilocos Norte, Zamboanga, Iloilo and the Bohol-Panglao International Airport. 

But these airports are not capable of handling wide-body planes that PAL and middle eastern airlines used to transport passengers. Only General Santos fits the bill as the only other airport capable of accommodating bigger aircraft like Boeing 777 and 747, as well as Airbus A330, A340, and A350.

Tugade said the passenger terminal area has tripled in size from 4,000 to 12,000 square meters and can now accommodate around 2 million passengers annually, a significant jump from the previous 800,000 per year.

“This will allow the airport to accommodate more passengers and provide them comfortable and convenient travel,” he said.

The Transport Chief added that additional improvement will be made next year as they upgrade its air control tower, which he considered as “too low.”

He said they will build a “higher and modernized” tower in 2022 to make it “more world-class” and can easily adjust to the needs of the airport.

Gensan Gets Aerobridge Pair

Expands Terminal threefold

3 January 2017

The Transport Department (DOTr) is expanding the General Santos International Airport passenger terminal building threefold to accommodate growing passenger traffic, part of President Rodrigo Duterte's build, build, build strategy.

The ₱462.522 million passenger terminal expansion project boast a two pier air bridge and a massive floor area of 12,000sq.m. from existing 4,000sq.m. terminal space which is slated to start by summer of this year and is expected to be completed in 2019.

When the project is completed the airport will have two contact bridges and three remote stands for heavy aircraft.

GES became the busiest airport in Mindanao Tuesday

Amidst DVO Closure

June 5, 2013

General Santos Airport became the busiest airport in Mindanao Tuesday after handling 25 A320 flights of Cebu Pacific, five A320 and three Boeing 747-400 flights of Philippine Airlines.