Source: Manila Bulletin, 14 January 2012
By Tara Yap
ILOILO CITY, Iloilo, Philippines – The Department of Tourism (DoT) in Region 6 will facilitate the holding of a dialogue among pertinent parties to help open direct international flights at the Iloilo airport.
“Let’s bring together officials, tourism stakeholders, business groups, and airline executives,” said, DoT 6 OIC regional director, lawyer Helen Catalbas
This, after neighboring province, Negros Occidental, welcomed the landing of a chartered Zest Air flight carrying 120 passengers from Incheon, South Korea on the Bacolod-Silay Airport.
Catalbas urged for a stronger public-private partnership (PPP) in Iloilo to convince airline companies.
“We need to package Iloilo better for airline companies to give its nod on international flights landing in Iloilo,” she said.
Public officials and private sector groups here have long been lobbying for international flights to land on Iloilo’s airport since the P9-billion so-called “airport of international standard” straddling the towns of Sta. Barbara and Cabatuan opened here over four years ago, in June 2007.
Last year, members of the Korean community in Iloilo urged that said airport be made to accommodate direct flights between Iloilo and Incheon International Airport.
Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog had earlier reportedly lobbied for that flight route when he went on an official trip to South Korea. Mabilog also bared that chartered flights have been proposed from Hong Kong or mainland China during the 2012 Dinagyang Festival.
