Subic Fastest Growing Airport in the Country

Increase in international passenger movement grow by 4,134%

29 October 2021

 By Ruben Veloria

Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA) is the Country's fastest growing international airport in the Philippines, defying the odds of slowdown and negative growth amidst Covid19 pandemic.

SBIA has grown from a mediocre international airport to a truly functional hub after the Philippine government approved its utilization as quarantine airport gateway, together with Clark, Cebu and Davao.

“The increase in international passenger movement by 4,134 percent was attributed to the repatriation of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and retuning overseas Filipinos (ROFs),” said Ronnie Yambao, SBMA senior deputy administrator for operations group.

 THE frequent arrival of Philippine Airlines (PAL) flights to bring home overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) stranded abroad because of the Covid-19 pandemic has given the airport a new lease of life as a global gateway.

SBMA Port Operations Group reported that aircraft movement at Subic airport increased to 17,756, or by as much as 25 percent in the third quarter of 2021,as compared to the 14,220 recorded in the third quarter of last year.

Yambao said while most of the movement were those of domestic aircraft, a total of 55 international flights that landed in the months of July, August and September contributed substantial number of revenue for the airport. 

These also resulted in increased movement of international passengers, from just 137 in the second quarter of 2021 to 5,800 in the third quarter.

 

POSITIVE AIRPORT REVENUE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A LONG WHILE
“In the third quarter of 2021 alone, the OFW flights had provided the Subic airport P1.6 million in direct income, as well as P218.7 million in income for Subic hotels,” says Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma Eisma

“We are continuing with the airport rehabilitation program that we started three years ago, and the successful OFW flights now are an indication that we have made substantial progress in upgrading SBIA facilities and equipment,” she said.

Among the completed upgrades were a new Doppler very high frequency omnidirectional range distance measuring equipment (DVOR/DME), an automated weather observation system (AWOS), an area navigation approach (RNAV), and new air-ground communication system for air traffic control.

Subic airport posted an actual revenue of P62.15 million, thus surpassing its revenue target of P49.52 million by 126 percent. The third quarter income was also 32 percent higher than that recorded in the same period last year.

The airport income was broken down into P40.48 million for leases, P21.62 million for airport fees, and P48,672 in royalty income.

Since July this year, when Subic became an alternate port for OFW repatriation, a total of 27 OFW flights had been flown to Subic by the Philippine Airlines, aside from nine that were diverted to Clark Airport during bad weather.

SBMA airport manager Zharrex Santos said the airport handled Bayanihan and repatriation flights every week.

Santos said the latest PAL flight that brought in OFWs landed here in Subic on Tuesday, with 299 passengers from Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.

According to Santos, the SBIA had handled a total of 9,159 international passengers consisting of 8,455 land-based and 421 sea-based OFWs, as well as 274 Filipino and nine foreign non-OFW passengers. (PNA)