Basco Airport

Basco Airport Pagtayaban ti Basco Paliparan ng Basco
IATA: BSO ICAO: RPUO
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner/Operator	Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines
Serves	Batanes
Location	Basco, Batan Island
Opened	1930; 95 years ago (1930)
Elevation AMSL	89 m / 291 ft
Coordinates	20°27′05″N 121°58′48″E
Maps
BSO/RPUO Show map of Batanes BSO/RPUO Show map of Luzon BSO/RPUO Show map of Philippines
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 06/24 1,244 4,081 Asphalt
Statistics (2017)
Passengers 104,089 25.63% Aircraft movements 2,702 6.46% Cargo (in kg) 1,299,048 15.78%
Source: Statistics from eFOI[1]

Basco Airport (IATA: BSO, ICAO: RPUO) is an airport serving the province of Batanes in the Philippines. It is located in the provincial capital, Basco. It is one of two airports in the Batanes Islands, the other being Itbayat Airport.

The airport is classified as a Class 2 principal, minor domestic airport by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), a body of the Department of Transportation that is responsible for the operations of non-major airports.

The airport is one of the hubs of Sky Pasada.

Although the airport in the past was briefly served by international flights, the airport is not officially classified as an international airport.

History

Basco Airport was first built in 1930 as Batan Airfield. During the Second World War, it became a target of Japanese forces during their invasion of the Philippines, seizing it along with the whole island on the first day of the Pacific War on 8 December 1941. Subsequently, the airfield was bombed by American planes in the closing months of the war in 1945, but the Japanese managed to hold on to it until their official surrender.[2]

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations
PAL Express	Clark,[3] Manila[4]
Sky Pasada	Tuguegarao, Calayan, Laoag
Fliteline Airways	Itbayat, Tuguegarao
Aerospeed Air Transport Services	Itbayat

Statistics

Data from Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines[1]

Passenger movements

Year	Domestic	Change
2003	26,065
2004	26,933	3.33%
2005	25,376	5.78%
2006	22,748	10.36%
2007	19,550	14.06%
2008	24,288	24.24%
2009	19,308	20.50%
2010	26,089	35.12%
2011	28,428	8.97%
2012	25,588	9.99%
2013	32,467	26.88%
2014	60,683	86.91%
2015	73,541	21.19%
2016	82,853	12.66%
2017	104,089	25.63%

Aircraft movements

Year	Domestic	Change
2003	3,322
2004	2,734	17.70%
2005	3,240	18.51%
2006	2,726	15.86%
2007	1,204	55.83%
2008	766	36.38%
2009	1,246	62.66%
2010	709	43.10%
2011	1,926	171.65%
2012	1,934	0.42%
2013	2,512	29.89%
2014	1,890	24.76%
2015	2,160	14.29%
2016	2,538	17.50%
2017	2,702	6.46%

Cargo movements

Year	Domestic (kg)	Change
2003	247,978
2004	280,210	13.00%
2005	346,017	23.48%
2006	378,055	9.26%
2007	344,832	8.79%
2008	301,968	12.43%
2009	10,980	96.36%
2010	386,512	3,420.15%
2011	388,150	0.42%
2012	361,389	6.89%
2013	510,172	41.17%
2014	701,712	37.54%
2015	866,985	23.55%
2016	1,122,039	29.42%
2017	1,299,048	15.78%

See also

• List of airports in the Philippines

Notes

References

1. Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (23 July 2018). "Yearly Passenger, Cargo and Aircraft Movements of all airports in the Philippines 1997–2017". Republic of the Philippines – Freedom of Information Portal. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
2. "Basco Airfield (Batan Airfield)". Pacific Wrecks. Retrieved 13 July 2023.
3. Cabuenas, Jon Viktor D. "PAL to restart Clark-Batanes flights in July". GMA Network. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
4. Liu, Jim. "Philippine Airlines Clark / Manila domestic network changes from March 2020". Routesonline. Retrieved 2 March 2020.