Duterte inspects Lal-lo airport ahead of first commercial flight landing
Raymon DullanaRaymon Dullana is The Northern Forum's new editor in chief. He also works as correspondent for Rappler.com.Cagayan
CAGAYAN, Philippines- President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday, March 14, inspected the Cagayan North International Airport (CNIA), also known as Lal-lo Airport, ahead of its inaugural flight for a commercial aircraft.
Duterte arrived at the airport around 4:45 pm on Wednesday. He was joined by Department of Transportation chief Arthur Tugade, Special Assistant to the President (SAP) Bong Go, and Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) administrator Raul Lambino.
Lal-lo Mayor Florante Pascual, Congressmen Randy Ting, Aline Vargas-Alfonso and Ramon Nolasco, and board members Maila Ting-Que and Olive Pascual was also present.
During his visit, Lambino presented the planning model of the airport, and the CEZA medium-term development plan.
Duterte also inspected the airport terminal building’s facilities.
1 commercial flight
On March 23, CNIA will receive its first commercial flight.
Lambino said in a meeting with the Cagayan Valley Regional Development Council (RDC) announced the flight will come from Macau, China.
The flight from Macau will carry up to 180 passengers and will be flying thrice a week, vice-versa.
Lal-lo Mayor Pascual, however, qualified that the flight from Macau will land first in Tuguegarao Airport as the Lal-lo airport has yet to secure an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) code.
Pascual also revealed that several domestic carriers such as Cebu Pacific, Philippine Airlines, and SkyJet to launch their commercial flights to the airport towards the third quarter of the year.
234 flights catered
In a press release release, CEZA said the airport had already catered to up to 234 flights since it secured a registration to operate from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.
These flights are privately chartered aircrafts and mainly of CEZA visitors, officials, and locators.
CEZA also revealed that the Joint-Venture Agreement between CEZA and Cagayan Land Property Development Corporation was amended to the make profit shares to 50-50.
Started in 2010, the P1.657-billion airport in being groomed to become the gateway to East Asia and North Pacific. Northernforum.net