RDC puts off request to study new airport in Northern Samar

TACLOBAN CITY, Aug. 30  – The Eastern Visayas Regional Development Council (RDC) has deferred the approval of a request to conduct a feasibility study for a new airport in the coastal town of Gamay, Northern Samar.

Members of the RDC infrastructure and utilities development committee (IUDC) agreed during its meeting Wednesday afternoon to set aside the endorsement, citing an existing feasibility for a new airport in Pambujan, Northern Samar.

The regional body asked the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines to provide a copy of the recent feasibility study done by the Department of Transportation (DOTr), which identified Pambujan as viable site for a new airport.

“We really have to check first the feasibility study for Pambujan before endorsing this proposal to conduct another study for an airport in Gamay, said RDC-IUDC co-chair Oliver Cam. “We have many airports in the region, but only Tacloban is the only income generating. Even the feeder airports in Samar provinces with commercial flights are not even sustainable. If we add a new airport, at what point would it be sustainable?”

Ceasar Clacito, Gamay municipal administrator said they are offering a 239-hectare vacant lot near the town center as site of a new airport in the province, considering that Catarman Airport is already restricted and no room for expansion to meet international standards.

“Constructing airport in Gamay will be less costly because no permanent structure erected in the proposed airport location. The airport will cater to the Northern Samar and Eastern Samar market,” Clacito said.

The site has enough space to build up to 3,500 meters of runway, more than double than the 1,600-meter runway of Catarman Airport, according to Clacito.

Gamay, a 4th class coastal town near the border of Eastern Samar, is about 110 kilometes from Catarman, the provincial capital, while Pambujan is only 51 kilometers away from the existing airport.

In 2009, local officials formally asked the central government to transfer the Catarman Airport due to recurring security problems.

The runway, located in the middle of populated communities, is used by the people as a road or plaza, posing danger to aircraft operations.

The airport’s structural limitations constrain airlines to utilize smaller aircrafts that are less cost effective and less fuel efficient. Using bigger aircrafts means bigger capacity and more fuel efficient, allowing airlines to offer more promotional fares, according to Philippine Airlines in a letter sent to the Northern Samar local government last year.

Currently, only Philippine Airlines uses the airport for its four times weekly Catarman-Clark flights. (SQM/PNA)