The provincial government of La Union is eyeing to resume the domestic commercial flights at the San Fernando Airport to boost tourism and travel from Northern Luzon to Visayas and Mindanao.

Among the routes being considered are San Fernando to Cebu City and Siargao.

Governor Raphaelle Veronica Ortega-David, in a statement on Monday, said a dialogue centered on mapping out plans to revive the operations of commercial domestic flights in the airport was held with officials from the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and Poro Point Management Corporation (PPMC) during their visit in the province last May 13.

“I’ve always been optimistic about the great potential our airport has to offer, especially as someone who has personally flown and trained on our own runway during my student pilot days,” she said.

Although there is no definite date yet on the resumption of domestic commercial flights at the airport, Ortega-David said the local government will be persistent on the development of the airport as this will not only strengthen the tourism industry and enhance investment opportunities of the province but also reduce the travel time from La Union to Visayas and Mindanao.

“This will also hopefully open up employment prospects for residents in Northern Luzon who may now easily travel to job centers in key cities in the South,” she added.

The 40.5 hectares San Fernando Airport, classified as a community airport has a runway measuring 2120 x 45 meters, two taxi-ways with a combined area of 4,443.20 square meters (sq.m.), apron measuring 1,500 sq. m., new control tower building, passenger terminal building, fire station building, water receiving station, power and communication system, Aeronautical Ground Lighting System, Automatic Weather Observation System and Air Traffic Control Console Equipment.

The airport has already positioned itself as a destination choice for Aviation Training, with at least 16 accredited aviation schools in the Philippines using the airport for long cross-country flight training. It also caters to selected chartered flights.

The provincial government has partnered with PPMC and other entities for flights to Batanes via the San Fernando Airport and the initial flight was supposed to start on April 15, 2019 but the pandemic hit. (PNA)