Mandurriao Airport (

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

: ''Paliparan ng Mandurriao'', Hiligaynon: ''Hulugpaan sang Mandurriao''), also known as Iloilo Airport during its operation, was the main

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

serving the area of

Iloilo City Iloilo City, officially the City of Iloilo ( hil, Siyudad/Dakbanwa sang Iloilo; fil, Lungsod ng Iloilo), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines on the island of Panay. It is the capital city of t ...

and the province of

Iloilo Iloilo (), officially the Province of Iloilo ( hil, Kapuoran sang Iloilo; krj, Kapuoran kang Iloilo; tl, Lalawigan ng Iloilo), is a province in the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Its capital is the City of Iloilo, the ...

in the Philippines. The airport was located five kilometers northwest of downtown Iloilo City in the district of Mandurriao. It was the fourth-busiest airport overall and the busiest domestic airport in the Philippines, accommodating over 700,000 passengers and over 5,000 tons of cargo in 2005.Iloilo Airport Traffic Report
, Air Transportation Office statistics posted o
ExploreIloilo.com
retrieved April 28, 2007 During the construction of the new Iloilo International Airport, it was also known as Iloilo–Mandurriao Airport. Having been in service since the 1930s, Mandurriao Airport has since been replaced by the

Iloilo International Airport Iloilo International Airport ( hil, Pangkalibutan nga Hulugpaan sang Iloilo, fil, Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Iloilo; ), also known as Iloilo Airport, and as Cabatuan Airport, after the municipality of Cabatuan, Iloilo where it is located, is the ...

located in the municipalities of Cabatuan and Santa Barbara, and was subsequently decommissioned on June 14, 2007. A sprawling

business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

, known as Iloilo Business Park occupies the airport site.

History

As a World War II airfield

Mandurriao Airport was built in 1937 and also served as a World War II airfield. By 1942, the airfield was captured by Japanese forces until the US Army recaptured it in 1945.

As a civilian airport

The year 1981 saw the arrival of Pope

John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

to the province of Iloilo as one of his stops during his 1981 Philippines visit, with the airport being used to facilitate his landing. A passenger terminal building was built in 1982. However, in the 1990s, problems in Mandurriao Airport began to rise due to the liberalization of the Philippine aviation industry and the rise of air travel in the country. The increasing incidents of terrorism in the Philippines forced aviation officials to restrict airport access only to passengers, the sealing of doors and windows at airport terminals being an essential component thereof. However, the terminal's architecture, which took advantage of natural ventilation, had posed problems for passengers, causing six to twenty-three air-conditioning units to be installed. Another barrage of problems hit the airport, which included outdated facilities, more poor passenger comfort, and others. Passenger complaints also focused on having their baggage manually checked due to the updated machines being for the sole use of

Philippine Airlines Philippine Airlines (PAL), a trade name of PAL Holdings, Inc. ( PSEPAL (Philippine Air Lines until 1970), is the flag carrier airline of the Philippines. Headquartered at the PNB Financial Center in Pasay, the airline was founded in 1941 and i ...

. The airport complex likewise was located directly alongside major city thoroughfares, in particular the city's main highway, the Tomás Confesor Highway, which complicated the flow of traffic in and around the area.

Closure and redevelopment

In 1995, a proposal of building a new airport outside of the city was announced, selecting Cabatuan as the new airport site in 1997. On June 13, 2007, at 6:20 pm PST, a

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 ...

-bound

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 ...

Airbus A319 The Airbus A319 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short- to medium-range, Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body, commercial passenger Twinjet, twin-engine jet airliners manufactured by Airbus. The A319 carries 124 to 156 passengers and has a ...

became the last commercial flight to depart the airport. The airport was formally decommissioned at 5:00 am PST the following day, coinciding with the simultaneous commissioning of the Iloilo International Airport. The property was sold for bidding and redevelopment. After delays, Megaworld acquired the site for Php 1.2 billion (roughly $2.5 million) to be developed into a mixed-use residential and commercial complex, now known as the Iloilo Business Park. The APEC Finance meetings in 2015 was hosted in the

Iloilo Convention Center Iloilo Convention Center is a convention center in the Iloilo Business Park in the district of Mandurriao, Iloilo City, Philippines. It stands on the site of Iloilo's former airport, Mandurriao Airport. History Iloilo-Mandurriao Airport Iloilo ...

, which occupies the former site of the airport's passenger terminal (demolished between 2012 and 2013). The former control tower of Mandurriao Airport was demolished in 2021. The tower used to serve as a monument to Iloilo's aviation history and Philippine aviation history. The structure also pays homage to

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

, who used the airport on his Iloilo stop during his 1981 visit to the Philippines.

Former airlines and destinations

References

External links

Profile of Mandurriao AirportWorld Aero Data - Mandurriao Airport (ILO) Details
{{authority control Defunct airports in the Philippines Airports established in 1937 Airports disestablished in 2007 1937 establishments in the Philippines 2007 disestablishments in the Philippines Buildings and structures in Iloilo City Transportation in Iloilo