Best Posts in Thread: New Airport Here

I was wondering why any by how much they would have to extend the runway and I came across these numbers:

1,829 m in length is usually adequate runway length for aircraft weights below approximately 90,718 kg. That is considered normal. The runway in Sibulan is already 1,880 m.

Larger aircraft including wide-bodies will usually require at least 2,438 m at sea level .

Now it seems to me that the complaint that started all this problem was someone's tree that they refused to cut. I heard rumors it has been cut now. BUT if they cannot force someone to cut a tree in Sibulan than what makes anyone believe the trees will not grow tall in Bacong? And at BOTH ends of the runway?

The runway and the airport already meets the International standard. Bacolod's new International airport has a 2,002 meter runway so 122 additional meters would match theirs. The new Bohol International Airport is big enough to land wide-bodies. Are they dreaming or are 777's gonna start landing in Bohol or Dumaguete.

I guess the bottom line is they can build a bigger airport if someone else is paying the bill but the airport currently in use is actually fine for current and future anticipated use and a couple of hundred meters extra (out into the sea) will make it even safer.

Such is my opinion, biased because I live close to the existing airport so I can see no reason for it to move and I like it where it is. Is it wrong to be biased? Well we have to wonder about the bias of those who would move the airport when it is fine where it is. What's in it for them? (Rhetorical $$ Question)

 

In the end this is all the really matters. No way is Cebu and Manila going to give up a cut of international flights that would lose them money in many sectors even if it helps out another growing Philippine city. Manila has already opposed moving some of the flights to Cebu where Manila is overloaded often and Cebu has plenty of room to spare. How dare us tiny insignificant specks of dust dare think of taking a little bit of the money Manila gets.

 

All your points are very good. As far as the trees growing in Bacong, I would hope they (or at least the South Koreans) would have the foresight to buy up enough clearway land (that is all defined in international specs) so that no tree could ever be a factor. They could transplant a giant redwood there and, as long as it's not in the clearway, it's not a factor for the aircraft.

As far as "What's in it for them?" LOL! Pockets lined with money for politicians, their families, and their extended families.

 

ANC news said South Korean has agreed to loan (or maybe give, not sure) $1.0 billion to the Philippines. $100 million is earmarked for the "Dumaguete" airport. Since ANC is a national news agency I doubt they picked the city as Dumugete out of a hat.

ANC seems to be fairly reliable, so I believe it might actually be true.
They didn't go into any detail, they didn't mention Burger King. We will have to wait and see.

 

I lost count how many times I heard them say the international airport here in Bacong has been given the go ahead. The engineers spent the last 12 months working out which direction the wind usually blows so they can work out the direction of the runway. What they desperately need in Bacong is a Mall and a Hospital and to tidy up the market part, looks in a dreadful state of disrepair, then think about an airport.

 

Eight years ago my brother-in-law, a mid-level career bureaucrat in the national gov, said "they must eventually build a replacement for the DGTE airport" because:

(1) the current one was partially built over swampland and, as usual, they enhanced their profits by shorting the large ballast rock so now the runway is settling unevenly. You can see this if you look down the runway from the highway and, according to him, it already means there are size and weight limits on the commercial planes that can land here. To fix it they would essentially have to completely tear it up and start from scratch.
(2) To extend the runway west would require moving the national highway and getting the new rights of way would just be impossible. Because of abuses during the Marcos period, the gov's power of "eminent domain" is very limited.
(3) To extend the runway east is considered too expensive and would invite the same abuses as #1 above. There would almost certainly be obstructions by the small but vocal PH environmental community.
(4) There would be major community objection to a much busier airport in Sibulan.

I'm not saying this is all true... just that's what he and his colleague's believed at the time.

A couple years later President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced five cities that would be developed as "magnet" locations for permanent resident kano's. DGTE was one and the plan called for "South Negros International Airport". My brother-in-law was told the gov had acquired a site near Zamboangita for a future new airport. He believed it enough that he heavily invested in land in that area. The site was chosen, he said, for cheap land with good topography, low density, favorable winds and enough room for substantial future growth..... which DGTE does NOT have. He claims that "to his certain knowledge" the largest private medical group in the country has acquired a large site in the area for a future "medical tourism" hospital. His personal opinion was that the airport site is "near the Tambobo Bay turnoff".

Again..... all this is barely above the level of gossip and anything Gloria promoted was likely tossed by the new admin.

 

I have seen at the Bacong City Engineer's Office (with my OWN eyes), a map of Bacong with the airport outline superimposed, not sure how accurate it still is. All guesses, the airport is about a km from national highway away from the water, parallel to the highway. The land is less than a km wide and is long, maybe a few km long (total is 280 hectares or 2.8 sq km)...Should check the map, i think it's available for public inspection.

I am fairly certain there is NO, ZERO, NADA accurate "updated info." I have personally heard from "connected" local people:
1. The airport will never be built..
2. The airport will definitely be built.
3. No (or very little) LAND ACQUISITION has been done (I think TRUE) (Davy's newspaper article above implies no acquisition has been done.
4. The land is already in the hands of politicians. They will make a killing.
5. Landowners will lose their shirts because the government will exercise "eminent domain" to take the land with "..just compensation," which means something different to politicians and to poor landowners...
6. <GRIN> Davy's newspaper above clears up NOTHING (thanks anyway guy), it only says the docs for a Korean loan have been signed, a fraction of the funds needed. Davy's article above includes 8 column inches (20 cm) on REHABING the Sibulan field.

OPINIONS
1. Considering the political situation in Bacong, i would be very hesitant to acquire land there, particularly if near the "airport."
2. Trying to out-think politicians is a bad idea.
3. Buying land around the proposed airport is a bad idea.
4. Buying land 4 km or so up the mountain for a home is an ok idea, land is anywhere from 500P to 3000P per square meter depending on lot size, road access, distance from national highway, desirability, and number of current owners (more than one or two, all alive, is a bad idea). Very doubtful planes would turn up mountain after takeoff...
5. Doubtful wide-bodies would ever be used for the southern part of Negros Oriental, no matter HOW much the tourism people spend on advertising... Airbus 320's and equiv are the most likely....
6. I personally think that the land acquisition problem will scuttle the project.