Iloilo International Airport (IATA: ILO, ICAO: RPVI), also known as Iloilo Airport,[3][4] and as Cabatuan Airport,[5] after the municipality of Cabatuan, Iloilo,[3] where it is located,[3] is an international airport serving the province of Iloilo in the Philippines,[6] including its capital city, Iloilo City, the regional center of the Western Visayas region. It opened its doors to commercial traffic on June 14, 2007, after a decade of planning and construction, replacing Mandurriao Airport in Mandurriao, Iloilo City, which had been in service for over seventy years. As a result, the new airport inherited its IATA and ICAO airport codes, as well as its position as the fourth-busiest airport in the Philippines,[7] from its predecessor.[8] It was the fifth-busiest airport in the Philippines in 2022.[9] It is the first airport in both Western Visayas and the island of Panay to be built to international standards, and it is also considered to be the primary gateway into the region.[10] It is classified as an international airport by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.
The airport is located in Cabatuan, Iloilo,[3][11] 24 kilometers (15 mi) northwest of Iloilo City on a 188-hectare (460-acre) site spread across Barangays Tabucan, Tiring, Gaub, Duyan-Duyan and Manguna.[11] The airport complex consists of a single runway, various administrative and maintenance buildings, waste-sorting and water-treatment facilities, a power-generating station, a cargo terminal, and a main passenger terminal.[12] Its location on the Tomas Confesor Highway, a major highway transversing the island, makes the airport accessible from all parts of Iloilo and Panay by road, while its proximity to the currently defunct Panay Railways network could potentially link the airport to the rest of Panay by rail.
Since it opened in 2007, Iloilo International Airport is one of the largest airports constructed in the Philippines. During its inauguration, former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo remarked that the airport was the most beautiful and modern in the country and called it a symbol of both political will and economic maturity.[13]
Prior to the construction of Iloilo International Airport, Iloilo City was served by Mandurriao Airport, located in the Mandurriao district of Iloilo City, which had been in operation since 1937.[14] Though continually expanded in order to accommodate the changing demands of the city throughout much of its history,[citation needed] Iloilo City's rapid urbanization had made this feat impossible by the 1990s. The 2,202-square-meter (23,700 sq ft) terminal building,[15] constructed in 1982 to handle the passenger demands of a single airline, (Philippine Airlines, being the Philippines' aviation monopoly at the time), was unable to cope with the liberalization of the Philippine aviation industry and the subsequent boom in air travel, when as many as four airlines served the airport at the same time and where the passenger terminal needed to have an area of at least 7,800 square meters (84,000 sq ft) in order to absorb all peak-hour demand.[15][16]
The airport's problems continued to linger with it into the new millennium. The increasing incidence of terrorism in the Philippines for example forced aviation officials to restrict airport access only to passengers, the sealing of doors and windows at airport terminals being an essential component thereof.[16] However, the airport's architecture (which took advantage of natural ventilation) and lack of air conditioning made the airport's pre-departure and arrival areas very uncomfortable for passengers to stay in. To counteract this, the Air Transportation Office (the forerunner of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines) installed six air-conditioning units at the pre-departure area. Although the installed units were able to provide a degree of comfort to passengers, the ATO recognized that their efforts were inadequate: in order to effectively provide a comfortable environment for passengers throughout the entire terminal building, twenty-three air conditioners needed to be installed.[16] Passenger complaints meanwhile were not limited to just the lack of air conditioning: despite the existence of a baggage X-ray machine, passengers flying other airlines were forced to have their baggage manually checked as the machine was ostensibly for the sole use of Philippine Airlines passengers.[16]
In addition to problems with the terminal building, both the airport's location and surrounding infrastructure were the subject of much complaint as well. For one, although some 1,700 cars visited the airport daily, the parking lot had only 129 slots, and could not be expanded any further. The airport complex likewise was located directly alongside major city thoroughfares, in particular the city's main highway, the Tomas Confesor Highway, which complicated the flow of traffic in and around the area. At one point, the ATO, which was already having difficulty managing vehicular traffic around the airport, proposed banning cargo and delivery trucks from passing through the road in front of the terminal building. However, the city government did not respond.[16]
Beset with a myriad of problems, authorities eventually concluded that a new airport had to be built outside the city, selecting the municipality of Cabatuan as the site of the new Iloilo International Airport. The airport's location was also the site of Cabatuan Airfield,[17] a World War II airfield built primarily in Barangay Tiring but also spread out to adjacent Barangays Duyan-Duyan, Gaub, and Tabucan, all located in the same municipality.
Lt. Col. Ryoichi Tozuka, the commander of the Imperial Japanese Army in Panay Island, signed the document of surrender at Cabatuan Airfield,[18] on September 2, 1945, the same day as the surrender signing in Japan aboard the U.S.S. Missouri. This was accepted by Col. Raymond G. Stanton, comdg the 160th U.S. Infantry regiment, and was attended by Rear Admiral Ralph O. Davis, comdg the U.S. Navy's 13th Amphibious Group, and by Brig. Gen. Donald J. Myers, comdg the 40th Infantry Division. The 13th Amphibious Group was tasked to transport the 40th U.S. Infantry Division to Korea.[19]
In October 1995, the Iloilo city government announced its intention to construct a new airport outside the city in cooperation with the private sector.[20] Although two sites were initially proposed: north of the city in Cabatuan and south of the city in the province of Guimaras, the ATO decided to keep the airport in Iloilo, citing the lack of demand in Guimaras to justify construction there.[15] The Regional Development Council for Western Visayas (RDC) later endorsed the project to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) for its approval in July 1997.[21] Despite the endorsements, the NEDA, citing an internal rate of return below the set "hurdle rate" of fifteen percent and the impossibility of acquiring some 415 hectares (1,030 acres) of land for the project in one year, rejected the airport proposal in February 1998,[22] and the project was subsequently excluded from the 1998 development cooperation program of the German government.[23]
Concurrently with the planning of the new airport, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) initiated a study on the master planning and long-term development plans of four key domestic airports in the Philippines. The report cited Mandurriao Airport, Bacolod City Domestic Airport, Legazpi Airport and Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport in Tacloban City as these key domestic airports, noting the high growth of passenger and cargo volume there and the eventual need for expansion.[24] Heeding the recommendations of the JICA report, President Joseph Estrada signed a memorandum in November 1998 creating the Iloilo Airport Coordinating Committee, headed by Iloilo-born senator Franklin Drilon.[25] The coordinating committee decided that a new airport was needed for Iloilo City as Mandurriao Airport was deemed unexpandable due to operational obstacles and the presence of slums and other natural and civic structures that would restrict expansion efforts.[26] In addition, the committee, objecting to the idea that the new airport would serve merely as a reliever for the new Bacolod airport, successfully lobbied for an international airport to be built in lieu of a domestic one.[27] The project finally received NEDA approval in March 2000,[28] with Cabatuan as the location of the new airport based on a study performed by both the DOTC and the JICA later that year.[26]
Although multiple funding sources were originally considered by the NEDA to fund the airport's construction,[29] it was decided that the project should avail of an official development assistance facility offered by the Japanese government through the then-newly formed Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). After almost two years of negotiations, and after initially refusing to bankroll the project,[30] the JBIC extended a 6.2 billion peso (US$152 million) loan to the Philippine government in August 2000.[31]
The Iloilo International Airport project was inaugurated by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on January 25, 2004, and construction work on the new airport started on April 14 that year.[32][better source needed] The original expected deadline of completion was June 2007,[33] although this was moved to the first quarter of 2007. A joint venture between the Taisei Corporation and the Shimizu Corporation of Japan served as the contractor for the project,[33] with Phil-Japan Airport Consultants, Inc. managing the project and serving as the government's consultant to the project.[34] The project was 75 percent complete as of July 14, 2006, and fully completed by March 18, 2007.[34][35] While construction was completed ahead of schedule, the airport was constructed over budget, with a final cost of around 8.8 billion pesos ($201 million) caused by increases in the cost of civil works and consultancy services.[36][37]
During construction, the airport was officially called the New Iloilo Airport Development Project, or NIADP. However, as the airport was nearing completion, there were three main contenders for the airport's name: Iloilo International Airport, the original name of the airport which had the support of the Iloilo provincial and city governments;[38][better source needed] Panay International Airport, proposed by the President and supported by the RDC, which at the time was led by Antique governor Salvacion Perez;[39][better source needed][40] and Graciano Lopez-Jaena International Airport, named after the Iloilo-born Graciano López Jaena, proposed by the Dr. Graciano Lopez-Jaena Foundation with the support of the RDC and Antique governor Perez, who is also a member of the foundation,[41] and endorsed by the National Historical Institute.[42][better source needed]