Builder hands over ₱9.3-B Clark Airport terminal building to gov’t

Megawide GMR Construction Joint Venture on Friday (January 22, 2021) officially handed over the ₱9. 36-billion Clark International Airport Passenger Terminal Building (PTB) to the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).

After the symbolic handover of the project, the DOTr and BCDA officially turned over its operations and maintenance to the Luzon International Premier Airport Development (LIPAD)

Corporation, the operator of Clark International Airport.

The new PTB can accommodate 8 million passengers on its opening year, almost tripling the airport's passenger capacity from the current 4.2 million to 12.2 million annually.

The airport expansion project for CRK has been completed by the end of September, 2020, ahead of its original October target completion date amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"When we envisioned this project, nobody believed that we can make it happen," DOTr Secretary Tugade noted in his speech delivered by Civil Aviation

Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Director General Jim Sydiongco.

From conceptualization to completion, the Clark International Airport’s new PTB is one of the fastest undertaken big-ticket infrastructure project by any government or any administration.

It is high-time for the airport to have a new PTB, LIPAD Corporation CEO Bi Yong Chungunco maintained.

"We hit 4 million passengers. And that's why, it is time for us to move into this new terminal, with a capacity of 8.2 million passengers," she stressed.

The old passenger terminal building will be converted into a vaccination hub.

"Our facility will be ready to vaccinate more than 10,000 people a day. Because what can be more perfect than having Clark International Airport as a vaccine hub and have the vaccination center right next door," according to Chungunco.

The world-class airport serves as a major gateway for Luzon, one of the solution for decongesting NAIA.

It will be connected with the PNR North-South Commuter Railway and the Subic-Clark Railway.

Its architecture is inspired by the Sierra Madre mountain range, and is designed to be disaster-resilient as well.