San Miguel to spend USD300m for redevelopment of Boracay Airport

Philippines' San Miguel Corp expects to spend USD300 million for the redevelopment of Boracay Airport (Gulf News, 27-Jun-2011). The redevelopment will include the construction of a 5000-room budget hotel developed by San Miguel Properties Inc. The master plan also includes a convention centre with a capacity for 2500 seats, a commercial area, as well as the extension of the runway from the current 950m to 2500m while the width will be doubled to 60m from 30m. President Benigno Aquino said the expansion will translate to additional revenues of PHP322.5 billion for the resort island. The expansion programme could take two to three years, and will increase the terminal's annual capacity to 3 million passengers from the current 500,000. Construction is expected to end in 2013. The Caticlan airport, which will soon be known as Boracay Airport, was formally reopened on 25-Jun-2011 by the President. The group is developing the airport under a 25-year build-operate-transfer contract with the government.