Calamity-ravaged Aurora opens door to commercial flights

SAN LUIS, Aurora — This remote, calamity-hit province welcomed the first commercial flight at the Dr. Juan C. Angara Airport yesterday noon.

The launching of a regular, twice-a-week flights is expected to boost the province’s economy and spark a tourism boom and enable it to break out from years of isolation, Gov. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo said.

The inaugural flight was completed after the Czechoslovak-made LET410 UVP-E aircraft of the Southeast Asian Airlines (SEAIR), a domestic airline company, touched down at the airport at 11:09 a.m.

Piloted by Jess Bihasa, the inaugural flight has 19 passengers on board including Sen. Edgardo Angara and Zeneida "Nini" Avancena, daughter of the late President Manuel Quezon. the airport runway is located in Barangay San Isidro, some seven kilometers from the capital town of Baler.

Angara-Castillo said the entry of commercial flights in Aurora is a landmark event for the province and would fit into its overall development plans.

"This will literally be a new dawn for us. Regular plane flights will bolster tourism, travel and trade and the benefits that would accrue to the people of Aurora would be immense," she said.

The governor also said that the province is now breaking out from long years of isolation and underdevelopment with giant strides in the economic front. — Manny Galvez