Bohol–Panglao International Airport , also known as New Bohol International Airport or Panglao Island Airport, is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

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 (; ), is an island province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas Regions of the Philippines, region, consisting of the island itself and 75 minor surrounding islands. It is home to Bohola ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. 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 (; ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, component city and capital of the Provinces of the Philippines, province of Bohol, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a popu ...

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 (MCIA) is the main international airport serving Metro Cebu and is the main gateway to the Central Visayas region in the Philippines. Located on a site in Lapu-Lapu City on Mactan island, it is the secon ...

, 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

– with

Jeju Air Jeju Air Co., Ltd. () is the first and the largest South Korean low-cost airline. Named after Jeju Island, the airline is headquartered in Jeju City with its largest base at Jeju International Airport. It is a founding member of the Value Allia ...

Asiana Airlines Asiana Airlines Inc. ( ) is a South Korean airline headquartered in Seoul.Home
." Asiana Airlines. Retrieved 13 September 2 ...

Air Busan Air Busan Co., Ltd., operating as Air Busan () is a low-cost airline based in Busanjin-gu, Busan, South Korea. It is a subsidiary of Asiana Airlines. The airline began its operation in 2007 as Busan International Airlines Company (); it launched ...

Jin Air Jin Air Co., Ltd. () is a South Korean low-cost airline. As of April 2018, it operates flights to six domestic cities and 26 international destinations. It launched its first long haul route, between Incheon and Honolulu, in December 2015. It has ...

Air Seoul Air Seoul () is a South Korean low-cost carrier and a subsidiary of Asiana Airlines. The airline is based at Incheon International Airport just outside of Seoul, from which it operates flights to international destinations. It launched operation ...

Qingdao Airlines Qingdao Airlines is a Chinese airline that commenced operations on 26 April 2014. The carrier is based at Qingdao Jiaodong International Airport. Initially, the airline was owned by the Nanshan Group (55%), the Qingdao Transport Development Gr ...

and

Philippine Airlines Philippine Airlines (PAL) is the flag carrier of the Philippines. Headquartered at the Philippine National Bank, PNB Financial Center in Pasay, the airline was founded in 1941 and is the oldest operating commercial airline in Asia. Philippine ...

– it is classified as Class 1 principal

domestic airport A domestic airport is an airport that handles only flights within the same country. Domestic airports do not have customs and immigration facilities and so cannot handle flights to or from a foreign airport. These airports often have short r ...

by the

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP, ; ) is the civil aviation authority of the Philippines and is responsible for implementing policies on civil aviation to assure safe, economic and efficient air travel. The agency also in ...

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 Aquino III (; born 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 ...

, head of the NEDA Board of the

, 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 is w ...

(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 Japan International Cooperation Agency (), also known as JICA'','' 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 gr ...

signed an agreement with the Republic of the Philippines to build the Bohol–Panglao International Airport at the cost of JPY10.78 billion, under the 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, respec ...

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

Construction and opening

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; ) is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for the maintenance and expansion of viable, efficient, and dependable transportation systems as effective instruments for national re ...

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

Mitsubishi Corporation is a Japanese general trading company ( ''sogo shosha'') and a core member of the Mitsubishi Group. For much of the post-war period, Mitsubishi Corporation has been the largest of the five great ''sogo shosha'' (Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Itochu, S ...

as the prime contractors, construction started on June 22, 2015. In its initial plan, the project was expected to finish in 2016, but was repeatedly delayed. Prior to the 2018 opening, the airport was slated to be completed by 2021.

Philippines AirAsia Philippines AirAsia, Inc. is a Philippine low-cost airline based at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay, Metro Manila. The airline is the Philippine affiliate of the Malaysian AirAsia. The airline started as a joint venture among three F ...

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, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first membe ...

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 Rodrigo Roa Duterte (, ; born March 28, 1945) is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He is the first Philippine president from Mindanao, and is the oldest person to assum ...

on the same day. The first commercial flight to land was

Cebu Pacific Cebu Air, Inc. (), operating as Cebu Pacific (stylized in lowercase), is a Philippine low-cost airline based in Pasay, Metro Manila. Founded in 1988, the airline was the first low-cost carrier in Asia and is also the largest airline in the Phi ...

Flight 619, an Airbus A320 from

Ninoy Aquino International Airport Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA ; ; ), also known as Manila International Airport (MIA), is the main international airport serving Metro Manila in the Philippines. Located between the cities of Pasay and Parañaque, about south of ...

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

, 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 A320 flight from

Hong Kong International Airport Hong Kong International Airport is an international airport on the island of Chek Lap Kok in western Hong Kong. The airport is also referred to as Chek Lap Kok International Airport or Chek Lap Kok Airport, to distinguish it from its predec ...

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

Flight 4407, a

Boeing 737-800 The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a twinjet, twin-engine narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third-generation derivative of the Boeing 737, it ha ...

from

Incheon International Airport Incheon International Airport is the main international airport serving Seoul, the capital of South Korea. It is also one of the largest and busiest airports in the world. This airport opened for business on 29 March 2001, to replace the old ...

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

Privatization

On March 7, 2018, Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc. submitted an unsolicited proposal to take over and upgrade the airport as well as

Iloilo International Airport Iloilo International Airport , also known as Cabatuan Airport, after its location, is the main international airport serving Iloilo City and its Metro Iloilo–Guimaras, metropolitan area, as well as the rest of Iloilo, Iloilo province in the ...

Bacolod–Silay Airport Bacolod–Silay International Airport , is an airport serving the general area of Metro Bacolod, located in the Negros Island Region of the Philippines. The airport is located northeast of Bacolod on a site in Barangay Bagtic, Silay, Negr ...

, and

Laguindingan Airport Laguindingan Airport , also referred to as Laguindingan International Airport, is an international airport in Northern Mindanao that serves the cities of Cagayan de Oro, Iligan and Marawi, as well as the provinces of Misamis Oriental, Lana ...

. The

National Economic and Development Authority The Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev; ) is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for national and regional economic policy, development, monitoring, and planning. DEPDev also oversees the pl ...

(NEDA) approved the proposal on December 3, 2019. After surpassing the Swiss challenge, Aboitiz announced on November 27, 2024, that they have been awarded the , 30-year contract by the Department of Transportation (DOTr). Aboitiz took over the airport's operations on June 16, 2025.

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 and other navigational equipment were installed in 2019.

Terminal and apron

Terminal building of the Bohol-Panglao International Airport

BPIA Tarmac and Terminal viewed from the tower

The airport has a two-level passenger terminal building with an area of , designed to accommodate two million passengers annually. It 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 for ...

and

solar power Solar power, also known as solar electricity, is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Solar panels use the photovoltaic effect to c ...

for one-third of its power supply. During construction, the original plan was to construct a single level for the terminal. In 2016, the Bohol provincial government pushed to install

jet bridge A jet bridge is an enclosed connector which most commonly extends from an airport terminal gate to an airplane, and in some instances from a port to a boat or ship, allowing passengers to board and disembark without heading outside and being exp ...

s for easier acces, hence, a second level was constructed. The terminal also sports a wave roof design inspired by the

Chocolate Hills The Chocolate Hills (, , or ) are a geological formation in the Philippine province of Bohol. Three jet bridges protude above a seven-bay concrete apron. The apron is capable of handling 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. The 777 is the world's largest twinjet and the most-built wide-body airliner. ...

and

Airbus A330 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body airliner developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus began developing larger A300 derivatives in the mid–1970s, giving rise to the A330 twinjet as well as the Airbus A340 quadjet, and launched both designs along ...

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

and

A321 The Airbus A321 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short to medium range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin engine jet airliners; it carries 185 to 236 passengers. It has a stretched fuselage which was the first derivative of the b ...

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

Data from

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

Footnotes and references

Footnotes

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