DAVAO CITY(PIA) -- A private aviation company is planning to resume commercial flights linking Davao City to Manado, Indonesia.“We are just confident that if we do each other’s part, we will sustain connectivity,” said retired Major General Gilbert Llanto, chairperson of the ACDI Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MPC), whose aviation arm, Leading Edge Air Services Corporation (LEASCOR), is planning to undertake the revival of the flights that were scuttled during the onset of the pandemic.

Manado, the capital of Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province, has had an air linkage to Davao City since 1992 through Indonesian airline Bouraq Air, which lasted until 2004. The route was then serviced by another Indonesian airline, Merpati, from 2005 to 2006 and Sriwijaya from 2006 to 2007.

In 2019, Garuda began servicing the Davao to Manado until it was discontinued due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Llanto said they are targeting a 65 to 70 percent load (including cargo) and are a doable target, adding that before the pandemic, he was aware that Garuda had been flying at more than break-even.

He said their willingness to pursue and revive the route is due to the robust market they have observed.

OnJanuary 4 of this year, ACDI-MPC, in partnership with the Mindanao Development Authority, organized a one-day exploratory mission to Manado, which was attended by 33 delegates from the government and the private business sector.

The delegates were flown by a 72-seater ATR 72-500. The goal of the activity was to assess the present conditions and opportunities for resuming the air route between the two cities, which inked a sisterhood deal in 1993.

For Regional Development Council- XI co-chair Arturo Milan, lessons must be learned and applied from the past discontinued linkages.

“We really need to have a clear strategy on how to improve traffic because that is what is important in connectivity— the passenger traffic. Number one, we can develop sports tourism like events such as golf, you give people a good reason to travel and move around. Then, we have education, but here the parents will take a look first, for if they enroll their kids here in Davao, then suddenly the direct flights will just last for a month. Then, we have medical tourism, as Jakarta is farther from Manado compared to Davao. So those from Sulawesi can come to Davao if it already has a regular flight,” Milan said.

Strategic and timely

Mindanao Development Authority Deputy Executive Director Romeo Montenegro said the January 4 mission to Manado as timely and a strategic concerted effort to pursue the project.

“We find this mission an opportune time to realize this project. There is so much more to look forward to in terms of realizing this project and seeing more interactions and mobility between Manado, North Sulawesi, Davao, and the rest of Mindanao,” Montenegro said.

The Davao-Manado route or the Mindanao-Sulawesi gateway is identified as part of the priority connectivity areas under the master plan of Asian connectivity, with the objective of linking the Philippine archipelago to its Asian neighbors. (RGA/PIA Davao)