Boracay Gateway launch to coincide with airport completion

MANILA, Philippines – The completion of Boracay Gateway, Alphaland Corp.’s high-end development at the tip of Panay Island, will coincide with the completion of the airport in nearby Caticlan, the jump off point to tourist favorite, Boracay island. 

Speaking on the sidelines of Alphaland’s stockholders meeting on Tuesday, April 2, the property firm’s president, Mario Oreta, said while construction has started on their Boracay Gateway project, they are in no rush to complete it as they are building it in parallel with the Caticlan Airport.

“We started the development but it needs to be timed together with the Caticlan International Airport. It doesn’t make sense for us to finish it without the airport,” said Oreta.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said the airport, called Godofredo P. Ramos Airport, will be completed in 2015.

Alphaland Boracay Gateway is a 500-hectare master planned eco-resort community that will feature sports, recreation, residential and retail/commercial areas and 1.7 kilometers of white sand beaches.

As of January, Alphaland has finished 90% of grading of 10 kilometers of roadways in Spine Road, Beach Road and Village Roads. It has also completed 90% of grading of the Polo Field.

Caticlan Airport is currently undergoing an expansion and upgrading under a PPP project undertaken by TransAire Development Holdings Corp., a subsidiary of San Miguel Corp..

The extension involves the lengthening of its runway from 890 meters to 1,900 meters in order to accommodate Airbus A320 jetliners and other aircraft that will bring in international tourists.

There have, however, been ecological concerns as part of the expansion involves chopping off a section of a 45-meter hill on the eastern side that blocks one end of the current airstrip resulting in possible erosion of land that would have otherwise been sheltered from the wind with the presence of the hill. – Rappler.com