Clark Airport - Big Runway Small Management

Comment from a reader on "Poor Management At Clark Airport":

More SOUR GRAPES from Subic Bulletin. The Clark Airport is doing a great job with hundreds if not thousands of happy passengers a day. Last time I heard anything about the Subic Airport was that it was defunct with zero passengers.

By the way, if you didn't know, FEDEX is here at Clark after leaving Subic. Seems to be the trend these days.

Is Subic Bulletin suffering from the Dick Gordon syndrome of talking out of both sides of his mouth. If you don't publish a rebuttal to these outrageous claims, it must mean you agree.

[The Subic Bulletin] We are really troubled by your statement "The Clark Airport is doing a great job with hundreds if not thousands of happy passengers a day", what you are actually saying is that hundreds of poorly treated passengers have no recourse or way to vent their frustration in dealing with the poor management and corruption at Clark Airport, even the head of the Clark Tourism Council was witnessed arguing with the aggressive tax collecting staff when they refused to let him board a plane insisting that he should pay a tax that he had never been asked to pay before!

You also seem to be under the misguided assumption that the people of Subic want to compete with Clark over airports, we certainly don't. Clark is the closest operational (mass market) international airport to Subic, but dont fool yourself that its got something to do with the special magic of Clark, you should already be aware that Clark was an air-force base that means the length and size of the runway is bigger and there are not mountains in the way so all types of aircraft can operate there. Frankly, although we romantically don't want to see Subic Airport disappear altogether, Clark is the perfect distance from Subic for those of us living in Paradise to not be bothered with the constant roar of aircraft.

You also seem misguided in your self proclaimed expert knowledge of FedEx who moved from Subic to China not Clark. The FedEx move was the result of some misguided head office managers who will probably have there names recorded as the biggest twits in the history of the company. The move to China has cost FedEx dearly and not provided anywhere near the return or advantages they were expecting.

If you had been reading The Subic Bulletin you would have read that the only FedEx flight landing at Clark is the flight from Taiwan to China that cannot legally fly direct Click Here.

If FedEx was to return to the Philippines, Clark would certainly be part of the picture because a fully laden Boeing 777 needs a longer runway than the one at Subic, again, this is because of the American built mega runway, don't try and fool yourself yet again that this would have anything to do with the management of Clark Airport which was, of course the subject of your comment.

And of course if FedEx did move to Clark, we know where all the staff would prefer to live - Subic!