Opening of Loakan, Bagabag airports to boost NL tourism

BAGUIO CITY – The opening of Loakan and Bagabag airports to commercial traffic again will boost tourism in northern Luzon, Tourism officials said.

The Regional Development Councils of Luzon expressed support for the clamor of the RDC-Cordillera Administrative Region and the region’s private sector for resumption of operations at the Baguio Loakan airport to better connect the Cordillera to other regions and provinces.

Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan, who chairs the RDC, said the airport needs an alternate road to keep vehicles, pedestrians and livestock off the runway. Funds will also be needed to install an instrument landing system that will allow aircraft to land despite poor visibility.

 The Luzon RDC chairpersons also discussed rehabilitating the San Fernando airport in La Union as an alternate airport to Loakan in case of bad weather.

Although Loakan airport remains open to chartered and military flights, no commercial flights have landed there since 2009.

The reopening of the Loakan airport to commercial flights is seen to spur economic growth not only in Baguio City but also in the neighboring provinces because of tourism.

Meanwhile, the Tourism department bared opening of chartered flights between Clark in Pampanga and Bagabag in Nueva Vizcaya. 

 The flights are expected contribute in significantly increasing tourist arrivals in strategic tourist destinations in the Cordillera in the coming months.

 The maiden Clark-Bagabag flight of a 30-seater aircraft is scheduled on May 17, 2017.

DOT Director Maria Venus Tan said the Clark-Bagabag flight will be available once every four days or 11 times a month.

Bagabag, a 45-minute flight away from Clark, is an hour and a half from the Banaue rice terraces, a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) heritage site. Banaue is also a jump-off point to tourist destinations like Sagada in the Mountain Province and the Chico river in Kalinga.