[cwoodward]

Chris in M

At Clark International Airport there are 2 long parallel runways of 3,200-meters (10,500 ft) although the second runway(02L/20R) is not in use or in condition to be used without considerable rebuilding.
Overall space is not an issue.

[Chris in Makati]

@cwoodward Those runways at Clark were built by the Americans, but after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo only one was rehabilitated and brought back into service.

There’s another short runway (640 metres) just to the south-east at Omni Aviation. I believe PAL also use it for training purposes. I used to do my flying training there and have landed on the main runway at Clark a couple of times. I suppose the other runway could be rebuilt again, but probably couldn’t be justified as there are only around 20 flights a day at Clark.

Even with the new Skyway across Manila, Clark is still around an hour and 45 minutes drive from the central business district in Makati. I can’t see many people being willing to spend that long getting to an airport, which probably explains why there are not more flights from there.

[cwoodward]

Chris
Yes as I say only one runway currently in use but no real reason why there could not be 2 again…..
Possibly you are a rather slow driver as the trip takes me as I say less than 1hour 15. leaving at about 9 am normally.

[Chris in Makati]

@cwoodward

I tend to drive at the maximum speed limit of the road. It depends on which part of Manila you’re leaving from, but from Greenbelt 3 to the parking area at Clark Google Maps is currently showing a drive time of an hour and 49 minutes. That’s leaving now, 11:00pm Manila time. I must have driven that route from Makati at least a dozen times since the Skyway Stage 3 was completed and it’s always taken me at least an hour and a half. If there’s an accident, roadworks, or other incident on the NLEX it can easily take well over 2 hours, so you have to take that possibility into account if you have a flight to catch.

[cwoodward]

Most major airports are out of town many by a good distance and in very small HK it is 40 Km away from Central.
Central London to Gatwick airport takes hour 1.30 by road and delays happen.

BTW The geographic centre of Metro Manila is San Juan (not Greenbelt) according to government stats – about 1hour 15 minutes and 94.2 km away by road.

[tomyam42]

My Hong Kong flat is about 20 minutes from HKIA whereas Google is now (9.05am) showing Clark Airport Departures is 2hrs 21 minutes from my wife’s house in Paranaque, close to an entrance to Skyway. I hope the existing airport continues to be used for international flights for the rest of my life.

[HKFlyer]

And it’s not just runway capacity that is a problem. The apron and taxiway layout is operating way beyond capacity. I struggle to see how improving the terminal buildings will make any significant difference to the capacity of the airport as a whole.

[cwoodward]

Much of the funding is being spent on antiquated almost non existent Air Traffic Control System hardware and properly training the managers and controllers. It is said that this alone will add 25% to the airports capacity and minimise delays.
Apparently and according to the consultants report that I mentioned up-thread there is more than adequate room on the apron the problems are again said to be caused by poor organisation and training. Also there are resolvable problem with the shorter runway and with some taxiways needing re directing.
The main runway is also 14mtrs narrower than international standards and there is a significant ‘hump’ about halfway down but no mention of any correction to this- which would be significantly costly.

BYW tomyam42
At 2.30 pm today the time need to drive the 98k from Makati to Clark was 1h 13m

[cwoodward]

NAIA’s primary runway is 3,737 meters (12,260 ft) long and 60 meters 200 ft wide,[ running at 061°/241° – Runway 13/31 runway is 2,258 meters (7,408 ft) long and 45 meters (148 ft) wide,[108] running at 136°/316° and is perfectly capable of taking A320 aircraft.
The runway management at NAIA is currently handled by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), and not by MIAA- is currently lax (possibly corrupt) and very sub par resulting in vast underusage by commercial aviation passenger traffic.
This however will change when SMC-SAP consortium takes over full management.
Many of the light aircraft that are now allowed to congest the runways and apron are likely to be banished under the new management allowing both runways to operated properly and to their designed capacity.

[Author]

Posts