Jorge Abad Airport | |
Nativename: | Filipino; Pilipino: Paliparang Jorge Abad Iloko: Pagtayaban ti Jorge Abad |
Icao: | RPLT |
Type: | Public |
Owner: | Government of the Philippines |
Operator: | Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines |
City-Served: | Itbayat, Batanes |
Elevation-F: | 328 |
Elevation-M: | 100 |
Coordinates: | 20.7169°N 121.8169°W |
Pushpin Map: | Philippines Batanes#Luzon#Philippines |
Pushpin Label: | RPLT |
Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in Batanes |
R1-Number: | 18/36 |
R1-Length-F: | 2,628 |
R1-Length-M: | 801 |
R1-Surface: | Concrete |
Jorge Abad Airport[1], also known as Itbayat Airport, is an airport serving the island of Itbayat, the largest island in the province of Batanes, Philippines. The province's only other airport, Basco Airport, is located in the provincial capital, Basco, on Batan Island.
The airport is classified as a community 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 northernmost airport in the Philippines was renamed in March 2017 through a Sangguniang Bayan (municipal council) resolution after Jorge Abad, the first Ivatan cabinet member who was appointed in 1955 as Secretary of Public Works. His son, Florencio Abad, was instrumental in sourcing the funds for the airport construction during his time as congressional representative for Batanes.[1] Manual labor was used during the airport's construction to level the uneven terrain, since the inaccessibility of the island in the 1990s made heavy equipment unavailable for use.[1]