Kabankalan domestic airport to finish in 2014
BACOLOD CITY -- Year 2014 will be the great year for the City of Kabankalan because of the scheduled completion of its P600-million domestic airport located four kilometers northeast of Kabankalan City proper in Barangay Hilamonan.
Mayor Pedro Zayco said the land acquisition is almost finished because only two landowners are left to be paid as to this date while their papers are being processed.
The project is financed completely by the city government of Kabankalan and provincial government of Negros Occidental costing around P200 million.
The Kabankalan City government funded the initial works.
Total area of the airport is 104 hectares with a runway of two kilometers in length but can be extended to three kilometers later according to the mayor.
The Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) has already given Mayor Zayco the copy of pre-feasibility on the airport that is subject to their comments. The said study would be the basis of national government funding.
On that study, it showed that the Kabankalan airport can cater two domestic flights a day.
"For a start I think we can have light planes for short distance travels," Zayco said.
With the closure of Bacolod City Airport in Brgy. Singcang last year, its navigational equipment has been turned-over to Kabankalan City.
Kabankalan City Domestic Airport would be the second airport in Negros Occidental, after Bacolod-Silay City International Airport, and the third airport on the island of Negros.
The airport was mentioned in the 2006 State of the Nation Address of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Construction of the new airport commenced on March 9, 2007, with completion slated by 2010 but a thorough study showed that it will be finished in 2014.