Puerto Princesa International Airport

Puerto Princesa International Airport Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Puerto Princesa
IATA: PPS ICAO: RPVP WMO: 98618
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines
Serves	Puerto Princesa
Location	San Miguel, Puerto Princesa, Palawan
Focus city for	Air Juan Philippines AirAsia
Elevation AMSL	22 m / 71 ft
Coordinates	09°44′31″N 118°45′32″E
Map
PPS/RPVP Location in the Philippines
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 09/27 2,601 8,560 Asphalt/Concrete
Statistics (2021)
Passengers 132,420 72.14% Aircraft movements 5,810 11.55% Cargo (in kg) 13,132,851 34.97%
Source: CAAP

Puerto Princesa International Airport (Filipino: Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Puerto Princesa; IATA: PPS, ICAO: RPVP) is an airport serving the general area of Puerto Princesa, located in the province of Palawan in the Philippines. It is classified as an international airport by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.

The airport is the main gateway to the Puerto Princesa Underground River, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.

History

World War II

The airport was built by American POWs during the World War II from August 1942 to September 1944. It was used to accommodate large Japanese transport aircraft to complement the grass airstrip south of the present-day location of NCCC Mall Palawan in Lacao Street. The airstrip was constructed by hand by the POWs using crushed corals for illuminating night landings. The finished airfield has an area of 7,200 ft (2,195 m) by 675 ft (205 m) with two runways.

On December 14, 1944, occupying Japanese soldiers herded 150 remaining American POWs who had constructed the air strip on Palawan (today's Puerto Princesa International Airport and Antonio Bautista Air Base) into air raid trenches, doused them with gasoline, set them afire, then machine-gunned and bayoneted them to death. Among them was Army Capt. Fred Bruni, the Palawan POWs’ senior officer, who was from Janesville, Wisconsin with the 192nd Tank Battalion. Only eleven men escaped the Palawan massacre to be rescued by guerrillas. The story of their ordeal persuaded General Douglas MacArthur that the rumored order for the retreating Japanese to “kill all” prisoners was being implemented, thus his rush to liberate the Philippines.

Imperial Japanese Army Air Force units based there were:

• 2nd Air Division (September 1944 – Early 1945)
• 71st Sentai Squadron (September 1944 – Early 1945)

After liberation of the Palawan in April 1945, a number US Army Air Forces units were stationed at the airport facility. These included:

• Headquarters, XIII Fighter Command (1 March 1945 – November 1945)
• 42d Bombardment Group (March 1945 – January 1946)
• 347th Fighter Group (6 March – December 1945)
• 419th Night Fighter Squadron (6 March 1945 – 10 January 1946)
• 550th Night Fighter Squadron (DET) (9–19 June 1945)

Post war

US Army and Navy Engineers of the 1897th Engineer Aviation Battalion and the 84th Naval Construction Battalion immediately rehabilitated the facility and completed as a military airbase on March 18, 1945. The Army and Navy engineers further expand the airfield, strengthening the runway by laying steel Marston Mats and concrete, adding air control facilities and tanks to store oil and aviation fuel.

As early of 1947, Puerto Princesa is opened for air travel. The first scheduled route, operated by Philippine Airlines (Philippine Air Lines), was from Manila to Puerto Princesa via San Jose, Mindoro and vice versa. The flight was scheduled during Wednesdays utilizing the DC-3 aircraft. During the early 60's, Puerto Princesa catered its first direct flight from Manila using the Vickers Viscount aircraft and welcomed its first jet service via BAC 1-11 by late 70's. Both are operated by Philippine Airlines. By the late 1990's, Puerto Princesa Airport welcomed its first wide-body aircraft service with Airbus A300 dubbed as the "Love Bus" operated by Philippine Airlines.

Fate of old terminal

The old terminal apron is utilized as an additional parking space for general aviation aircraft as well as large aircraft such as the Airbus A320. As of March 2022, the old terminal is now operated by Philippine Air Force Tactical Operations Wing West.

The Philippine Airlines ticketing office was relocated at the main city proper at the Getan Square building.

Terminal and structures

New passenger terminal

To meet the growing air transportation demands of Puerto Princesa and the Province of Palawan, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) awarded the $82.9-million (₱2.616 billion) contract to the Kumho Industrial Co. Ltd. GS Engineering & Construction Joint Venture (Kumho-GS), a South Korean company for the construction of new passenger terminal and cargo terminal building, a new apron with six aircraft bays (four for narrow-body aircraft and two for wide-body aircraft as large as the Airbus A330, Airbus A350 and Boeing 787), connecting taxiways, new state-of-the-art air navigation system, and other support facilities in compliance with the international civil aviation standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The project was completed 30 months (approximately two years) from the groundbreaking rites.

The new passenger terminal complex has an upgraded handling capacity of two million passengers annually, with an estimated peak passenger flow of 690 passengers per hour. It was officially inaugurated on May 3, 2017 and opened for commercial operations on the next day.

Runway

The airport consists of a single 2,600-meter-long (8,500 ft) and 45-meter-wide (148 ft) runway running at a direction of 09°/27°. The airport shares its single runway with Antonio Bautista Air Base. The runway is equipped with an instrument landing system, runway lights, and approach landing lights making the airport capable of nighttime operations as well as low visibility landings.

Airport lounges

The airport consists of two major airport lounges.

• Mabuhay Lounge by Philippine Airlines
• PAGSS Lounge

Future expansion

Phase 2 of the airport development includes expansion of the passenger terminal building, construction of a parallel taxiway, additional apron area and a runway extension.

Statistics

Data from Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP). An em dash (—) is used when data from CAAP is not available.

PPS . .

Passenger movements

Year	Domestic	International	Total	Change
2003	195,975	0	195,975
2004	271,769	161	271,930	38.76%
2005	267,778	0	267,778	1.53%
2006	284,110	0	284,110	6.10%
2007	392,039	0	392,039	37.99%
2008	444,878	0	444,878	13.48%
2009	584,186	0	584,186	31.31%
2010	807,916	0	807,916	38.30%
2011	988,972	0	988,972	22.41%
2012	1,322,925	0	1,322,925	33.77%
2013	1,357,531	12,894	1,370,425	3.59%
2014	1,371,651	6,929	1,378,580	0.60%
2015	1,564,914	26,804	1,591,718	15.46%
2016	1,612,640	31,363	1,644,003	3.28%
2017	1,767,157	22,958	1,790,115	8.89%
2018	2,046,628	99,722	2,146,350	19.90%
2019	2,019,542	144,189	2,163,731	0.81%
2020	453,610	21,712	475,322	78.03%
2021	132,420	—	132,420	72.14%

Aircraft movements

Year	Domestic	International	Total	Change
2003	3,346	0	3,346
2004	4,390	12	4,402	31.56%
2005	3,916	0	3,916	11.04%
2006	3,780	0	3,780	3.47%
2007	4,538	0	4,538	20.05%
2008	4,990	0	4,990	9.96%
2009	4,236	0	4,236	15.11%
2010	3,760	0	3,760	11.24%
2011	4,248	0	4,248	12.98%
2012	12,046	0	12,046	183.57%
2013	10,512	2,684	13,196	9.55%
2014	13,130	224	13,354	1.20%
2015	14,222	184	14,406	7.88%
2016	13,813	191	14,004	2.79%
2017	15,682	155	15,837	13.09%
2018	19,404	683	20,087	26.84%
2019	17,423	1,033	18,456	8.12%
2020	6,375	194	6,569	64.41%
2021	5,801	9	5,810	11.55%

Cargo movements

Year	Domestic (in kg)	International (in kg)	Total (in kg)	Change
2003	5,001,051	0	5,001,051
2004	4,500,599	—	4,500,599	10.01%
2005	4,744,915	0	4,744,915	5.43%
2006	3,912,209	0	3,912,209	17.55%
2007	4,480,615	0	4,480,615	14.53%
2008	4,580,557	0	4,580,557	2.23%
2009	5,439,799	0	5,439,799	18.76%
2010	8,972,631	0	8,972,631	64.94%
2011	9,294,017	0	9,294,017	3.58%
2012	10,938,901	0	10,938,901	17.70%
2013	12,699,299	—	12,699,299	16.09%
2014	15,038,825	—	15,038,825	18.42%
2015	14,278,467	133,614	14,412,081	4.17%
2016	17,136,857	116,870	17,253,727	19.72%
2017	16,173,990	833,190	17,007,180	1.43%
2018	16,955,042	13,029	16,968,071	0.23%
2019	20,042,720	—	20,042,720	18.12%
2020	9,730,214	—	9,730,214	51.45%
2021	13,132,851	—	13,132,851	34.97%

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations
Air Juan	Busuanga, Cuyo, San Vicente, Sipalay, Taytay
AirSWIFT	Manila
Cebu Pacific	Cebu, Manila
PAL Express	Cebu, Manila
Philippine Airlines	Manila
Philippines AirAsia	Cebu, Manila
Sunlight Air	Manila

Accidents and incidents

• On January 11, 2011, a Cebu Pacific Airbus A319 registered as RP-C3190 with 129 passengers and 6 crews on board swerved off the runway upon landing after touchdown. Though the pilot maneuvered the aircraft back to the runway, the aircraft sustained substantial damage on its nose and main landing gear with other damages on the left and right engine fan blades, aircraft underbelly and underwings. No one on board was injured.
• On April 11, 2012, A departing Cebu Pacific Airbus A320 clipped the wingtip of a Zest Airways Airbus A320 while sitting on the apron around 6:30 p.m. The incident severed Zest Airways' navigation lights forcing the company to cancel their return flight to Manila. By the time of the incident, only Philippine Airlines offers push back vehicle to its aircraft so other airlines will have to do a 180 degree turn to taxi out of the apron. No one is injured during the incident.

Gallery

• 

  Puerto Princesa Airport Runway from above

• 

  Puerto Princesa Airfield

• 

  Inside the departure hall.

• 

  The New Terminal, as seen from the apron.

• Puerto Princesa International Airport.jpg

  The up-close look of the departure hall. The lighting design is inspired from the palm trees, which are common in Palawan.

• 

  The Old Terminal, located at the other side of the runway at Brgy. Bancao-bancao. It has been closed for air traffic since May 4, 2017.

See also

• List of airports in the Philippines
• Antonio Bautista Air Base

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Air Force.