Cagayan de Oro Airport: WHEN ???

We informed you already yesterday that there is an information problem about the moving of Cagayan de Oro airport from Lumbia to Laguindingan.

The order, published in the Official Gazette of  Malacanang Palace reads: “The Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) today announced that it has decided to push back the transfer the gateway to Northern Mindanao from the old Lumbia Airport in Cagayan de Oro to the new P7.8 billion Laguindingan Airport by one-and-a-half months to June 15, 2013, in order to avoid the disrupting passengers’ travel plans over the summer.”

But …

“As of today, the postponement of the opening is still unofficial until we receive the official order,” CAAP Northern Mindanao told at a press conference on Thursday morning.

Funny, everybody knows, but customers with a valid ticket from Lumbia airport are not yet informed. This will be the biggest fiesta for the taxi drivers who will haul passengers from one airport to the other at astronomic fares.

In my humble opinion this will not be the last postponing of the move from Lumbia to Laguindingan.  Around 15 daily flights to Cagayan de Oro will be scrapped once the operations will be transferred to Laguindingan Airport which has no radar or Instrument Landing System (ILS) installed yet. The ILS and radar system in the new airport will be installed, calibrated and tested next year.  Flight operations will be limited from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and bad weather will mean no flights.

Presently, the old Lumbia Airport handles 28 passenger flights daily and handles more than 2,000 passengers a day. Local traders have aired their opposition in several paid advertisements in national newspapers and have threatened to put up placards at the airport site to protest its opening.