Tacloban Airport remains closed to jets until May 10

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines – Aircraft restriction at the Daniel Z. Romualdez (DZR) Airport or Tacloban Airport has been extended anew, from April 30 to May 10, largely due to shortage of construction materials, an official of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said.

CAAP Tacloban Assistant Area Manager Allan Cahingcoy said that the 10-day extension was granted the contractor, after airport authorities learned of the shortage of asphalt materials and other extraneous factors that altered the construction timetable.

The airport runway project started on April 14, but as of April 24, only 40 meters of the more than 300 meters portion of the damaged runway surface had been paved.

The DZR Airport has been closed to jets anew since April 14 to resurface the 338-meter portion of the 2,138-meter runway.

This is the 3rd round of airport runway repair. The first was from September to mid-December 2014, when 1,400 meters were paved. The second round was from February 9 to April 13, for the resurfacing of 300 meters.

Jet flights were not disrupted on the second phase since the work was concentrated on the northernmost tip of the runway.

The airport damage was largely caused by submersion of runway to seawater and frequent use of big aircraft during the post-Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) emergency phase.

Tacloban Airport has 14 inbound and 14 outbound flights daily from and to Manila or Cebu. Of the 14 aircrafts, 12 are Airbuses and only two are turboprop planes.

With the limited operation of the airport, the number of flights has been reduced to 8 – 4 by Cebu Pacific all bound for Cebu and 3 by the Philippine Airlines (3 for Manila and one for Cebu). All flights use 70-seater propeller-driven aircrafts. – Rappler.com