NEWS

By Henry Empeño

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) is now expecting more business at the Subic airport with the opening here on Monday of a facility targeting Asia-Pacific clientele for aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services.

SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the MRO project by business aviation services provider Aviation Concepts Technical Services Inc. (ACTSI) will boost the government agency’s program for the full development of the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA) as a 24/7 hub for business aviation.

The ACTSI is set to provide hangar parking, corporate jet maintenance, repair and overhaul, as well as aircraft corrosion preventive solutions at its Subic hangar.

ACTSI, the maintenance arm of Falconer Aircraft Management Inc., which is an affiliated firm of International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), has upgraded close to 18,000 square meters of hangar space at the SBIA for this purpose.

In last Monday’s launch, the ACTSI hangar easily accommodated a 2010 Gulfstream Aerospace GIV-X (G450), which is more than 89-feet long and with a wingspan of more than 77 feet. A helicopter was also parked inside the facility.

The ACTSI, which has signed a 25-year lease agreement with the SBMA, also hopes to leverage the SBIA’s 9,000-feet long runway for easy takeoffs and landings for its large-sized aircraft clients.

Snowball
EISMA said this development could snowball into more business for the Subic airport, which once served as a 24-hour Asian hub of the global courier giant Federal Express until 2009.

“We have long dreamed of developing the SBIA into a business and general aviation airport in the country; and this project is one huge step toward realizing that vision,” Eisma said on Thursday. “We are banking on the strategic location of Subic in the Asia-Pacific region to boost SBIA’s chances to become a regional player in the MRO business.”

The Subic airport started out in 1951 as the Naval Air Station Cubi Point of the United States Navy and was converted into a commercial airport under the SBMA in 1992.

The SBMA has since marketed SBIA for its strategic location, it being only 1.5 hours away from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan and just three hours away from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

Bolstered
IN a forum sponsored last year by the Hong Kong-based Asian Business Aviation Association (AsBAA), aviation executives expressed enthusiasm about developing Subic into a fully integrated aerospace park and aviation hub.

Eisma also said that that enthusiasm has been further bolstered by concrete support from the Philippine government which allocated P553 million to improve SBIA equipment and intensify its marketing campaign.

“Along this line, we are now working to revive domestic and international flight operations at the SBIA; regain the SBIA’s status as an international airport; and settle pending issues to make Subic a 24/7 air terminal,” Eisma added.

ACTSI President and CEO Fernando L. Gaspar and ACTSI General Manager John O’Meara led the soft launch of the Subic hangar with Sen.Richard Gordon as guest of honor.

The senator, who initiated the establishment of the SBIA when he was SBMA chairman, welcomed the business venture of ACTSI and pointed out that the airport is one of the strategic advantages of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

Source: Business Mirror