SAN JOSE, Antique, May 5 (PNA) -– Antique will no longer be a far away place for businessmen, tourists and Antiqueños alike who travel to Manila and other places because soon, Antique will only be an hour away from Manila once PAL Express starts flying the Manila-San Jose, Antique route and vice versa.
Governor Rhodora J. Cadiao said she had talks just last week with Philippine Air Lines executives Jaime Bautista and David Lim for regular flights by the Philippine flag carrier from Manila to San Jose airport.
Cadiao, who is a former flight stewardess of PAL, said her former bosses were surprised and glad to know that she is now governor of Antique.
“I told Mr. Bautista and Mr. Lim of our situation. I told them that we have an airport but no airline is coming to serve the Antiqueños. I told them that our situation is better now because of the growing number of investors coming into our province. I told them that the Antiqueños fly via Iloilo Airport or Kalibo Airport which are more than two hours travel and I think I was able to convince them to include Antique in their flight routes,” Gov. Cadiao said.
“The PAL officials will be sending a team to inspect our airport and its facilities. They will study what airplane can land here because we have a short runway of only 1.2 kilometers,” she added.
There used to be regular flights of two times a week by Asian Spirit from Manila to San Jose in 2004 until June 2006. There was no explanation as to why the airline stopped the flights.
Since then, former Governor Exequiel Javier had tried to convince different airlines to include Antique in their commercial routes but nothing happened.
Once in a while, private planes especially those of DMCI or Semirara Mining Corporation land at San Jose airport to ferry company officials or government officials.
According to Mr. Elmar Capadocia, designated Duty Officer of CAAP, the San Jose airport can accommodate only smaller airplanes of up to 80 seats because of its short runway of only 1.2 kilometers.
“Asian Spirit planes from 29-seater to 39-seater and 80-seater turbo jets used to land here. Their flight schedules were irregular, however, that some passengers complained,” Capadocia said.
He noted, however, that the San Jose airport has a longer runway than that of Caticlan Airport in Aklan. Its north end can still be expanded by about 600 meters.
“We have a fully-equipped flight tower but we have no personnel to man the tower because we have no regular flights. We have no runway lights so we are limited only to day flights but we have a firetruck for emergency case,” he said. (PNA)