Iloilo International Airport in Iloilo - Philippines

The Iloilo International Airport is the international airport of the capital of the province of Iloilo and the regional hub of the Western Visayas in the Philippines. It opened on June 14th, 2007 to air traffic after almost ten years of careful planning and construction, replacing the former Mandurriao Airport in Iloilo City, which served for more than 70 years.

Despite being named as an International Airport, it is classified by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines as a Class 1 domestic airport. The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines is responsible for all airport operations in the Philippines. Aside from being the first international airport in Western Visayas and Panay, the airport is considered to be one of the 4 international airports in the area of Visayas.

The Iloilo International Airport can be found about nineteen kilometers northwest of the city proper on a location in Barangay Duyan-Duyan, Cabatuan, where the main airport is located. The entrance of the airport and the roads leading to it can be found in Santa Barbara. The International Airport facilities are composed of one runway, different administrative and maintenance facilities, a waste sorting and water treatment facilities, an electricity producing station, cargo area and a passenger terminal.

Its location along the Tomas Confesor Highway, which is an important highway traversing the whole island, makes it very accessible from all areas of Iloilo and Panay.

Conceptualization for the Iloilo International Airport started in 1997, when the JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) started a study in the master planning and development of 4 main domestic airports in the Philippines. The JICA report cited the Mandurriao Airport, the Bacolod City Domestic Airport, the Legazpi Airport and the Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport in Tacloban City as important domestic airports, stating the growth of passenger and cargo volume passing through the airport.

After receiving a 6.2 billion peso loan as part of the package given by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the project was inaugurated by President Gloria Arroyo on January 25th, 2004. Construction on the airport started on April 14th, 2004. The original deadline for completion of the project was on June 2007. A joint collaboration with the Taisei Corporation and the Shimizu Corporation of Japan served as contractors for the airport, with the Phil-Japan Airport Consultants Incorporated managing the airport project and serving as the consultant of the government to the project. The project was already seventy-five percent complete as o July 14th, 2006 and scheduled to be fully complete on March 8th, 2007.

While the project was ahead of schedule, the airport was made over the set budget, with the final cost of around 8.8 billion pesos or 201 million dollars caused by increases in civil works and consultancy services. There were three names that have been considered for the airport: the Iloilo International Airport, the Panay International Airport and the Graciano Lopez-Jaena Airport. Out of the three names, the Iloilo International Airport had the most support from the public. The airport was scheduled to open on March 19th, 2007 but it was moved to April 16th, 2007 with commercial flights starting on April 21st, 2007. But this was also changed to June 13th, 2007 with the arrival of the presidential airplane around 9:50 am.

The airport has one main runway 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) forty-five meters (150 feet) wide. The plane runaway is placed at a direction of 02°/20°, the same previous Mandurriao Airport. But the difference is that the airport can accommodate big plans like an Airbus A330.

The Iloilo International airport currently serves Air Philippines, Cebu Pacific and Philippines Airlines, with a fourth airline company, Zest Airways set to begin operations to Iloilo from Manila on March 16th, 2009.