Bohol–Panglao International Airport ( ceb, Tugpahanang Pangkalibutanon sa Bohol–Panglao; fil, Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Bohol–Panglao; ), also known as New Bohol International Airport, is an international airport on

Panglao Island Panglao is an island in the north Bohol Sea, located in the Central Visayas region of the Visayas island group, in the south-central Philippines. Geography The island has an area of . It is within Bohol Province, and comprises two municipalit ...

in the province of

Bohol Bohol (), officially the Province of Bohol ( ceb, Lalawigan sa Bohol; tl, Lalawigan ng Bohol), is an island province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, consisting of the island itself and 75 minor surrounding islands. It ...

, Philippines. The airport opened on November 28, 2018 after decades of planning and three years of construction, replacing Tagbilaran Airport to support Bohol's increased passenger traffic due to tourism. The airport serves as the gateway to

Tagbilaran Tagbilaran, officially the City of Tagbilaran ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Tagbilaran), is a 3rd class component city and capital of the province of Bohol, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 104,976 people. Encompassing a la ...

and the rest of mainland Bohol for domestic air travellers. It also is less than an hour's flight from

Mactan–Cebu International Airport Mactan–Cebu International Airport ( ceb, Tugpahanang Pangkalibutan sa Mactan–Sugbo; fil, Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Mactan–Cebu; ) is an international airport serving Metro Cebu and serves as the main gateway to the Central Visayas regio ...

, which is a gateway to central Philippines for international tourists. Dubbed as the first eco-airport in the Philippines and the country's green gateway, the airport is located at a site in Barangay Tawala in Panglao. While the airport is billed as an international airport, it is classified as Class 1 principal domestic airport by the

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP, ; fil, Pangasiwaan sa Abyasyong Sibil ng Pilipinas) is the civil aviation authority of the Philippines and is responsible for implementing policies on civil aviation to assure safe, econo ...

History

Planning and funding

The first feasibility study of the airport was conducted in 2000 during the Estrada administration. On September 4, 2012, President

Benigno Aquino III Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (; February 8, 1960 – June 24, 2021), also known as Noynoy Aquino and colloquially as PNoy, was a Filipino politician who served as the 15th president of the Philippines from 2010 to 2016. The son of ...

, head of the NEDA Board of the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, approved a resolution giving the green light for the construction of the airport. The proposed airport was to be funded through

Official Development Assistance Official development assistance (ODA) is a category used by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to measure foreign aid. The DAC first adopted the concept in 1969. It ...

(ODA) instead of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP), an infrastructure-building program of the government of the Philippines wherein the private sector may participate in any of the schemes authorized by its build-operate-transfer law. On March 27, 2013, the

Japan International Cooperation Agency The is a governmental agency that delivers the bulk of Official Development Assistance (ODA) for the government of Japan. It is chartered with assisting economic and social growth in developing countries, and the promotion of international co ...

signed an agreement with the Republic of the Philippines to build the Bohol–Panglao International Airport at 10.78 billion yen under the project name New Bohol Airport Construction and Sustainable Environment Protection Project. The signing signaled the roll out for the construction of a new airport in the province of Bohol at an island adjacent to Tagbilaran Airport. Despite the location of the airport, which is just outside of

, it adapted the

IATA code IATA codes are abbreviations that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) publishes to facilitate air travel. They are typically 1, 2, 3, or 4 character combinations (referred to as unigrams, digrams, trigrams, or tetragrams, respect ...

: TAG from the old airport, which was located in the heart of Tagbilaran.

Construction

Initially, the airport's cost was pegged at ₱4.8 billion pesos to build but was later increased. On June 9, 2014, six Japanese firms submitted bids for construction of the proposed airport at a cost of ₱7.14 billion to be funded from official development assistance (ODA) loan from the

. On December 15, the

Department of Transportation and Communications The Department of Transportation (DOTr; fil, Kagawaran ng Transportasyon) is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for the maintenance and expansion of viable, efficient, and dependable transportation systems as eff ...

started its search for bidders to bid out for the operations and maintenance (and future extension) of the airport under a concession model. Construction of the airport started on June 22, 2015 following the selection of Japanese Airport Consultants (JAC) for the design and consultancy work on the project, and the consortium of

Chiyoda Corporation is a global engineering company specialized in oil and gas midstream for gas processing and LNG, downstream refinery and petrochemicals facilities design and construction. Chiyoda is headquartered in Yokohoma, Japan with engineering offices abr ...

and

Mitsubishi Corporation is Japan's largest trading company (sogo shosha) and a member of the Mitsubishi keiretsu. As of 2022, Mitsubishi Corporation employs over 80,000 people and has ten business segments, including finance, banking, energy, machinery, chemical ...

as the prime contractor for the construction of the project. In its initial plan, the project was expected to finish in 2016, but the opening was delayed. Prior to the 2018 opening, the airport was slated to be completed by 2021.

Opening

Philippines AirAsia Philippines AirAsia, Inc. is a low-cost airline based at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Metro Manila in the Philippines. The airline is the Philippine affiliate of AirAsia, a low-cost airline based in Malaysia. The airline started as a j ...

operated a special flight using its

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the famil ...

to the new airport, becoming the first airline to land at the airport hours before its inauguration on November 27, 2018. The airport was then inaugurated by then President Rodrigo Duterte on the same day. The first commercial flight to land was

Cebu Pacific Cebu Air, Inc., operating as Cebu Pacific (), is a low-cost airline of the Philippines. Founded in 1988, it is Asia's oldest low-cost airline. It offers scheduled flights to both domestic and international destinations. The airline operates fl ...

Flight 619, an Airbus A320 from

Ninoy Aquino International Airport Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA , ; fil, Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Ninoy Aquino or ''Pandaigdigang Paliparan ng Ninoy Aquino''; ), originally known and still commonly referred to as Manila International Airport (MIA), is the main ...

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

, which landed at past 7:30 a.m. PST the following day. The first international flight to land at the airport was a chartered

Royal Air Philippines Royal Air Charter Service, Inc., operating as Royal Air Philippines, is a Philippine-registered budget airline. The company was established on August 22, 2002 as a chartered airline. It began operations as a budget airline on December 14, 2018, ...

A320 flight from

Hong Kong International Airport Hong Kong International Airport is Hong Kong's main airport, built on reclaimed land on the island of Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong. The airport is also referred to as Chek Lap Kok International Airport or ''Chek Lap Kok Airport'', to distinguish ...

at 4:45 p.m. PST on September 30, 2019. Meanwhile,

Jeju Air Jeju Air Co., Ltd. (), is the first and largest South Korean low-cost airline. It offers scheduled domestic services, as well as international destinations including China, Japan, Russia, the Mariana Islands, and various Southeast Asian countries ...

Flight 4407, a

Boeing 737-800 The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a narrow-body aircraft powered by two jet engines and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third generation derivative of the Boein ...

from

Incheon International Airport Incheon International Airport (IIA; ) (sometimes referred to as Seoul–Incheon International Airport) is the largest airport in South Korea. It is the primary airport serving the Seoul Capital Area and one of the largest and busiest airports ...

, landed as the first commercial international flight at the airport on November 21 at 11:28 a.m. PST.

Structures and facilities

Panglao Island International Airport aerial view

Runway

The airport has a asphalt runway that runs in a 030°/210° direction. Taxiways E3 and E4 serve as access to the apron from the runway. During construction, the runway was planned to be long, later extended to . The runway is planned to be extended to . To make the airport capable of night operations, an

instrument landing system In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...

and other navigational equipment were installed in 2019.

Terminal and apron

The airport has a two-level passenger terminal building with an area of , designed to accommodate two million passengers annually. During construction, the original plan was to construct a single level for the terminal. In 2016, the

provincial government pushed for a plan to install

jet bridge A jet bridge (also termed jetway, jetwalk, airgate, gangway, aerobridge/airbridge, skybridge, finger, airtube, expedited suspended passenger entry system (E-SPES), or its official industry name passenger boarding bridge (PBB)) is an enclosed, ...

s to provide easier access to the airport, hence, a second level was constructed. There are three jet bridges installed at the airport. The terminal also sports a wave roof design inspired by the

Chocolate Hills The Chocolate Hills ( ceb, Mga Bungtod sa Tsokolate, tgl, Mga Tsokolateng Burol) are a geological formation in the Bohol province of the Philippines.

. The airport uses

natural ventilation Passive ventilation is the process of supplying air to and removing air from an indoor space without using mechanical systems. It refers to the flow of external air to an indoor space as a result of pressure differences arising from natural forces ...

and

solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovolta ...

for one-third of its power supply. The concrete apron features a total of four parking bays for wide-body aircraft as large as the

Boeing 777 The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long-range wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet. The 777 was designed to bridge the gap betw ...

and

Airbus A330 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner in the mid-1970s. Then the company began development on the A330 twinjet in parallel with the A340 ...

or a maximum of seven parking bays for narrow-body aircraft like the

and A321.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

Data from

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

References

External links

Official website

New Bohol Airport Profile at Public-Private Partnership Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bohol-Panglao International Airport Airports in the Philippines Buildings and structures in Bohol Japan International Cooperation Agency Airports established in 2018 2018 establishments in the Philippines Transportation in Bohol