MikeLigalig.com

Operators of the fog-wrapped Loakan Airport here have not seen a commercial plane land for three years now, due to a weather that has become a serious navigational concern for the airline industry.

But all this will change as Sky Pasada will start flying to the summer capital three times a day. With two 19-seater Russian-made LET 410 UVP-E passenger planes, Sky Pasada owned by the WCC Aviation Co., has officially reinstated Baguio in the flight plans for Northern Luzon.

In 2007, Baguio almost lost its only airport when domestic airlines stopped landing here after they expressed concern that the city’s daily afternoon fog was potentially hazardous to routine air navigation.

But the Arroyo administration invested in upgrading Loakan Airport as part of the government’s P100-million Aeronautical Highway of the North project.

Ramon Guico III, president and CEO of WCC Aviation, described Sky Pasada as “a rural airline that will connect the rural destinations all over the country.”

Guico says WCC Aviation intends to make the Baguio route as its Northern Luzon hub because it is strategic to servicing a market in Manila, Cauayan, Tuguegarao, Batanes and Boracay in Aklan.

Sky Pasada’s aircrafts can land in short-field, semi-prepared or unprepared runways, and can take off and land even in the harshest flying conditions, Guico says.

He says Sky Pasada would reroute flights to a WCC Aviation airfield in Binalonan on days when the Loakan Airport is not available.