President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Thursday (February 11) inspected the P308 million Phase 1 Expansion Project of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) Terminal 1 which is expected to be completed by March this year.
President Arroyo arrived here at DMIA Terminal at about 2:30pm in the final stage of her Urban Luzon Beltway Tour which started this February to inspect her various infrastructure projects since she assumed the presidency 9 years ago.
Officials of the Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC) led by President and CEO Victor Jose I. Luciano briefed Mrs. Arroyo on the developments at DMIA as well as the on-going expansion of the DMIA Terminal 1 that would accommodate an additional 500,000 passengers annually. The passenger capacity of the current DMIA Terminal 1 is about 2 million annually.
The President was also accompanied by Subic Clark Alliance Development Council (SCADC) Secretary Edgardo Pamintuan and Deputy Spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo in her visit to Clark.
CIAC Chairman Nestor Mangio, Executive Vice President Alexander Cauguiran, Vice President for Operations and Business Development Romeo Dyoco and Vice President for Administration and Finance Lauro Ortile also welcome the president's arrival at the DMIA Terminal.
The new terminal expansion phase 1 project is a two-story building that cost P308,880,000 and will feature two Aero Bridges, Flight Information Display, Close Circuit Television, Background Music, Public Address System, X-Ray Machines, Escalators and Elevators.
The target completion of the project is on March 31, 2010. The project is being built by the A.G. Araja Construction and Development Corporation.
President Arroyo has designated DMIA as the Premier International Gateway of the country as part of her vision to make it as the center for logistics and services hub in the Asia Pacific Region. On April 4, 2008, President Arroyo led the inauguration of the DMIA Expanded Terminal 1 that further increased passenger capacity to 2 million annually from its previous 500,000 passengers. The expansion also pave the way of additional immigration counters, airlines offices, concessionaires area, and five airline ticketing offices, baggage conveyors and among others.
DMIA is host to foreign and local carriers flying out of Clark such as Tiger Airways of Singapore that flies Clark-Singapore, Air Asia of Malaysia via Clark-Kuala Lumpur and Kotakinabalu, Asiana Airlines via Clark-Incheon in South Korea with connecting flights to the US, China and Japan, Cebu Pacific Air via Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok and Macau while South East Asian Airlines (Seair) via Clark-Caticlan at the world famous Boracay Beach Island Resort.
Other carriers includes Spirit of Manila Airlines via Clark-Taiwan and Jin Air a subsidiary of Korean Air with chartered flights to Incheon in South Korea.