New Zambonga airport to be built

March 3, 2018

The Department of Transportation, along with the Mindanao Development Authority has announced that a first-class international airport will be built and completed within four to five years in Zamboanga City, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said Saturday.

The airport will be located 17 kilometers away from the city proper at a project site in Barangay Mercedes.

A feasibility study on the airport project is ongoing, said Roque in a briefing in Zamboanga.

A team from TCGI Engineers is conducting an environmental and social impact study of the airport project, added Roque.

Roque said the current Zamboanga airport is in the top 10 busiest airports in the Philippines for 2017 with 8,870 aircraft movements, one million passenger movements and 13 million cargo movements per  Department of Tourism figures.

The planned new Zamboanga airport was first sought to be included in the Medium Term Public Investment Development Plan of the Department of Transportation and Communication in the last year of Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya. It  did not made it to the list for funding.

The transport department funded the sixth study which was supposed to be finished by November last year, City Planning head Rodolfo Sicat said. Although the project was left unfinished, “by the mere fact the DOTr funded it up to its completion, we hope this feasibility study would proceed to its next level”, he added.

The new airport would cost between P40 billion to P60 billion, added Sicat. DMS