By Joey Pavia / Correspondent
CLARK FREEPORT—Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) President and CEO Emigdio Tanjuatco III on Wednesday expressed confidence that the number of passengers at the airport here this year will be slightly higher compared to 2014, when it failed to breach the 1-million mark. In an interview at The Medical City Clark, Tanjuatco said total passengers in 2015 could also be the same in a worst-case scenario compared to the 877,757 passengers that entered CIAC in 2014.
Tanjuatco, appointed as president and CEO of CIAC in October 2014, said there were 443,507 passengers from January to June this year. He said 2014 was the first time in three years that the total number of passengers failed to reach 1 million. There were 1.3 million passengers in 2012 and 1.2 million in 2013.
Tanjuatco said Jin Air, one of the eight airlines operating at the Clark International Airport (CIA), will launch four-times-a-week flights to and from Busan, South Korea, and Clark from July 27 to August 24.Then It will stop for a few months, before flights resume in November. Tanjuatco said Jin Air increased its frequency from four-times-a-week to daily flights beginning May 6 this year.
Tanjuatco denied reports that Qatar Airways, which began Doha-Clark flights in October 2013, will abandon Clark, after new flight entitlements were granted to one of the leading airlines in the world. Qatar Air is based at the Doha International Airport.
Tanjuatco said the planes of Qatar Air are “90-percent full most of the time for its daily Clark-to-Qatar flights and vice versa.” He added that Qatar’s business class was “100-percent full” in over a year after it began operations.
The number of flights at the CIA suffered setbacks, after AirAsia Philippines and Emirates decided to stop operations from the CIAC. Tanjuatco said AirAsia officials had considered their decision to leave the CIA “a mistake.” He added that the low-cost carrier could have earned well by launching domestic flights via the premier airport in Central Luzon.
“We are having talks with AirAsia. We hope they come back in Clark,” he added.
AirAsia Malaysia earlier this year resumed its Clark-Kuala Lumpur flights.