Puerto Princesa International Airport

For the military use of this facility, see Antonio Bautista Air Base.

Puerto Princesa International Airport Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Puerto Princesa
IATA: PPS ICAO: RPVP WMO: 98618
Summary
Airport type	Public / Military
Owner/Operator	Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines
Serves	Puerto Princesa
Opened	1947 (1947)
Operating base for	Air Juan
Time zone	PHT (UTC+08:00)
Elevation AMSL	22 m / 71 ft
Coordinates	09°44′31″N 118°45′32″E
Map
PPS/RPVP PPS/RPVP
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 09/27 2,600 8,530 Asphalt concrete
Statistics (2022)
Passengers 1,121,373 746.83% Aircraft movements 8,931 53.72% Cargo (in kg) 14,139,882 7.67%
Source: CAAP

Puerto Princesa International Airport (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 prisoners of war 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 2,195 by 206 meters (7,200 by 675 ft) with two runways.

On December 14, 1944, occupying Japanese soldiers herded 150 remaining American POWs that constructed the airstrip 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 at this airstrip included the 71st Sentai Squadron (September 1944 – Early 1945).

Post-war

The old terminal located at the other side of the runway which has since been closed to passenger traffic since 2017.

After liberation of the Palawan in April 1945, a number of US Army Air Forces units were stationed at the airport facility. These included the 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), and the 550th Night Fighter Squadron (DET) (9–19 June 1945).

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 in March 1945. The Army and Navy engineers expanded the airfield, strengthening the runway by laying steel Marston Mats and concrete, adding air control facilities and tanks to store oil and aviation fuel.

Puerto Princesa opened to air travel as early as 1947. The first scheduled route, operated by Philippine Airlines (PAL), 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 1960s, 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 the late 1970, both of which are operated by PAL. By the late 1990s, Puerto Princesa Airport welcomed its first wide-body aircraft service with Airbus A300 dubbed as the "Love Bus" operated by PAL.

Expansion and contemporary history

The new terminal as seen from the apron.

To meet the growing air transportation demands of Puerto Princesa and the province of Palawan, in 2014, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) awarded a $82.9-million (₱2.616 billion) contract to the joint venture of Kumho Industrial Co. Ltd. and GS Engineering & Construction for the construction of new passenger terminal and cargo terminal building, a new apron, 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 new terminal was officially inaugurated on May 3, 2017, and opened for commercial operations on the next day.

Between 2013 and 2014, MASwings operated flight routes to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. Philippine Airlines operated chartered flights from China, South Korea, and Taiwan in 2018. Meanwhile, Tigerair Taiwan launched commercial international flights to the airport from Taipei on June 7, 2019. Cebu Pacific also launched flights to Hong Kong from the airport on November 17 of that year. In March 2020, international flights were suspended due to the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, along with flights in Manila and Clark.

The largest aircraft accommodated by Puerto Princesa International Airport is a chartered Boeing 777-200ER operated by Omni Air International.

Structures

Terminal

Inside the departure hall.

The airport has a 13,000-square-meter (140,000 sq ft) two-level passenger terminal with a capacity of two million passengers annually and a seating capacity of 1,500. It was built by the joint venture of Kumho Industrial Co. Ltd. and GS Engineering & Construction. Its apron has 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). The terminal has a Mabuhay Lounge by Philippine Airlines and a PAGSS Lounge. The terminal also has a seating capacity of 1,500. Outside the terminal is a parking lot with a capacity of 200 cars.

The new terminal replaced the 3,000-square-meter (32,000 sq ft) old passenger terminal with an annual capacity of 350,000 passengers and an apron with four parking bays. In 2019, the terminal was equipped with free WiFi for all travellers.

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.

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations
Cebgo	Cebu, Iloilo
Cebu Pacific	Cebu, Clark, Davao, Iloilo, Manila
PAL Express	Cebu, Manila
Philippine Airlines	Cebu
Philippines AirAsia	Manila
Royal Air Philippines	Charter: Taipei–Taoyuan

Statistics

Data from Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).

Annual passenger traffic at PPS airport. See Wikidata query.

Year	Passenger movements				Aircraft movements				Cargo movements (in kg)
	Domestic	International	Total	% change	Domestic	International	Total	% change	Domestic	International	Total	% change
2003	195,975	0	195,975		3,346	0	3,346		5,001,051	0	5,001,051
2004	271,769	161	271,930	38.76	4,390	12	4,402	31.56	4,500,599	—	4,500,599	10.01
2005	267,778	0	267,778	1.53	3,916	0	3,916	11.04	4,744,915	0	4,744,915	5.43
2006	284,110	0	284,110	6.10	3,780	0	3,780	3.47	3,912,209	0	3,912,209	17.55
2007	392,039	0	392,039	37.99	4,538	0	4,538	20.05	4,480,615	0	4,480,615	14.53
2008	444,878	0	444,878	13.48	4,990	0	4,990	9.96	4,580,557	0	4,580,557	2.23
2009	584,186	0	584,186	31.31	4,236	0	4,236	15.11	5,439,799	0	5,439,799	18.76
2010	807,916	0	807,916	38.30	3,760	0	3,760	11.24	8,972,631	0	8,972,631	64.94
2011	988,972	0	988,972	22.41	4,248	0	4,248	12.98	9,294,017	0	9,294,017	3.58
2012	1,322,925	0	1,322,925	33.77	12,046	0	12,046	183.57	10,938,901	0	10,938,901	17.70
2013	1,357,531	12,894	1,370,425	3.59	10,512	2,684	13,196	9.55	12,699,299	—	12,699,299	16.09
2014	1,371,651	6,929	1,378,580	0.60	13,130	224	13,354	1.20	15,038,825	—	15,038,825	18.42
2015	1,564,914	26,804	1,591,718	15.46	14,222	184	14,406	7.88	14,278,467	133,614	14,412,081	4.17
2016	1,612,640	31,363	1,644,003	3.28	13,813	191	14,004	2.79	17,136,857	116,870	17,253,727	19.72
2017	1,767,157	22,958	1,790,115	8.89	15,682	155	15,837	13.09	16,173,990	833,190	17,007,180	1.43
2018	2,046,628	99,722	2,146,350	19.90	19,404	683	20,087	26.84	16,955,042	13,029	16,968,071	0.23
2019	2,019,542	144,189	2,163,731	0.81	17,423	1,033	18,456	8.12	20,042,720	—	20,042,720	18.12
2020	453,610	21,712	475,322	78.03	6,375	194	6,569	64.41	9,730,214	—	9,730,214	51.4
2021	132,420	—	132,420	72.14	5,801	9	5,810	11.55	13,132,851	—	13,132,851	34.97
2022	1,121,047	326	1,121,373	746.83	8,923	9	8,931	53.72	14,139,882	—	14,139,882	7.67

An em dash (—) is used when data from CAAP is not available.

Accidents and incidents

• On January 11, 2011, Cebu Pacific Flight 645, an Airbus A319 from Manila 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 Cebu Pacific Airbus A320 (as Flight 640 departing for Manila) 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 airline to cancel their return flight to Manila.

See also

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

Footnotes and references

References

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