Subic Airport Is Just A Backup

Comment from a reader on "Still A Chance For Subic Airport?":

I am not sure where you are getting your information from but the landing and parking fees for both Clark and Subic are published and in the public domain. The landing fees at Clark are very marginally cheaper than Subic and would not be an issue at all to a company like FedEx.

As for the ILS system I am not sure how old the equipment is but it was installed fairly recently. Not more than 5 years. The ILS approaches to both ends of the runway are non standard and do not meet the FAA standard requirements. This is mainly due to terrain.

The 07 approach comes over the mountain at the north side of the entrance to the bay with a clearance of around 200 feet the 25 approach is not aligned with the runway and is rather steep due to terrain and in particular mount santa rita. It is a category 1 approach with no approach beacons etc.

This airport was constructed for carrier based aircraft and was only really upgraded in 1995 for FedEx use. I would strongly suspect that Clark was chosen on safety grounds. The Clark main runway is longer by around 500m and is 60m wide as opposed to Subics 45m. It has no obstructions and has over runs. It has a secondary runway that can be used if required. It is not surrounded by terrain as Subic is and thus does not have the windshear that is common in Subic.
You may well ask why they chose Subic in the first place. Well if I remember correctly, ash fall in the air was still a serious problem back in 1995 and it was more of a problem in Clark than in Subic. A Japanese study at the time showed this. Volcanic ash is very bad for aircraft engines. Due to prevailing winds etc Subic was not effected as much.

The safety issues can be highlighted by the MD11 that ended up in the bay. Although this may well have been pilot error, had it happeded at Clark I believe the aircraft would have stayed on or close to the runway extension. Imagine if that was a passenger plane!

There is one reason I believe it should stay open and that is to serve as an alternate in the event Manila and or Clarks main runway closes for whatever reason. Manila and Clark both only have one full instrument runway with lights on. Clarks seconday runway could only be used in daytime. We have experienced cases recently where an accident closes Manila's runway then all traffic gets diverted to Clark and Subic.