Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Bacolod–Silay Airport is the main gateway to Negros Island in the Western Visayas, serving Metro Bacolod from a purpose-built site north-east of the city. Opened in 2008 to replace the old Bacolod City Domestic Airport, it offers a single long instrument runway and is operated by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines. For the simulator pilot it is a straightforward tropical airfield with a full ILS approach and a history stretching back to the Second World War.
Bacolod–Silay Airport, known by the ICAO code RPVB and IATA code BCD, serves the general area of Metro Bacolod on Negros Island in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines. It is owned and operated by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) and, despite carrying the 'International' name, is classified as a Class 1 Principal domestic airport. It replaced the former Bacolod City Domestic Airport in 2008 and now handles the bulk of scheduled traffic for Negros Occidental, making it a useful and interesting VFR and IFR destination for pilots exploring the central Philippines.
The airport lies in Barangay Bagtic, in the municipality of Silay, Negros Occidental, about 15 kilometres north-east of the city of Bacolod on a 181-hectare site. Negros Island sits within Western Visayas, and Bacolod–Silay is the busier of the two principal airports on the island, the other being Dumaguete–Sibulan on the opposite, Negros Oriental side.
The airfield has one physical runway, 03/21, aligned north-east to south-west. It is 6,543 feet long with a hard surface, lit for night operations, and equipped with an ILS on runway 03. Field elevation is 82 feet above mean sea level.
Pilots can expect an approach service on 121 MHz and a tower frequency of 118.8 MHz. The runway 03 approach is served by an ILS, giving instrument arrivals a precision approach aid into the field.
The site of Bacolod–Silay Airport was originally one of the main airfields used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service for bombers and fighters based on Negros during the Second World War, and was captured by American forces in 1944 and 1945; after the war parts of the old airfield reverted to sugarcane cultivation. Planning for a modern replacement airport began in 1997 through a Japan International Cooperation Agency study identifying the need for expansion at several Philippine airports, followed by a detailed 1999–2000 design study funded by a 430 million-yen grant. Construction of the new 4.3 billion-peso airport, part-funded by an 8.2 billion yen loan, began in August 2004 under the Takenaka–Itochu Joint Venture, with wartime Japanese airfield remains and aircraft wrecks uncovered during the works. The facility was formally inaugurated by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on July 13, 2007, and the first aircraft to land, a Vincent Aviation Reims-Cessna F406 flown by New Zealand pilot Steve Gray, touched down on September 26, 2007. Regular commercial operations began on January 18, 2008, with the first scheduled arrival being Cebu Pacific Flight 5J 473 from Manila, an Airbus A319 flown by Silay-born Captain Allan Garces. The first international arrival was a charter from Almaty, Kazakhstan on January 2, 2009, and the airport later saw seasonal international charter services to Incheon operated by Zest Air and, in 2015-2016, Philippine Airlines, largely catering to South Korean golfing tourists.
Bacolod–Silay continues to operate as a Class 1 Principal domestic airport under CAAP, capable of handling aircraft up to Airbus A330 size on its single runway. Customs, immigration and quarantine facilities were installed by late 2014 in anticipation of scheduled international flights, but as of 2023 no regularly scheduled international services operate from the field, with traffic remaining primarily domestic.