‘POWER-DUO DESTINATIONS’

The Department of Tourism on Saturday assured there will be no competition between the new international airport in Panglao, Bohol and the Mactan Cebu International Airport despite their close proximity.

Tourists will still opt to land in Cebu and enjoy its unique tourism offering

The Panglao international airport will start operation this month, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said. But she reiterated both international airports, separated by just a two-hour ferryboat ride, will complement than compete with each other.

“Tourists will still opt to land in Cebu and enjoy its unique tourism offering. Ever since, Cebu and Bohol have been regarded as power-duo destinations as the two island provinces’ charm are complementary,” she added.

The P7.8-billion Panglao airport expects to host some two million passengers a year.

Department of Finance (DoF) Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the new Bohol Airport is a “perfect” model for hybrid public-private partnership project “in which government takes over the initial phase of the project and later bids out its operations and maintenance to the private sector.”

The P7.8-billion Panglao airport expects to host some two million passengers a year.

With this, the Aboitiz Group announced its subsidiary Aboitiz InfraCapital was granted the Original Proponent Status (OPS) by the Department of Transportation (DoTr) for operation and maintenance of the new Bohol Airport.

The OPS include operations and maintenance, future development and expansion of the new airport in Panglao island.

The DoF and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) also signed last month a supplemental agreement extending a 4.376 billion yen loan to the Philippines to help fund the second phase of the airport project to cover the expansion of its runway and passenger terminal building.

She reiterated both international airports, separated by just a two-hour ferryboat ride, will complement than compete with each other.

Through JICA, Japan also provided funding support of 10.782.billion yen (P5.18 billion or $237 million) for the first phase of Panglao airport.

The second phase of the airport project covered by JICA’s supplemental loan will include the extension of the runway from the current 2,000 meters to 2,500 meters to enable the airport to accommodate large commercial aircraft and the expansion of the passenger terminal building from 8,500 square meters to 13,300 square meters in anticipation of possible congestion that may arise should tourism traffic rise faster than expected.

The DoTr is planning to enhance the capacity of the airport by extending the runway to 2,800 meters, constructing a separate cargo terminal and a parallel taxiway aside from building a fuel depot plus a fuel hydrant system.