Within days the board of the A.B. Won Pat International Airport will vote on a proposal by Philippine Airlines to use the airport for technical landings.

According to the Journal’s story the vote is likely to be a resounding ‘yes.’

Following initial contacts between Gov. Felix P. Camacho and PAL offficials Jesse Torres and Frank Santos of the airport authority have been in Manila cementing the arrangement with their fellow executives at PAL.

The number of landings is likely to be between 400 and 500 a year.

At first glance the discount to PAL might seem to be generous on the part of the airport authority.

But the landings not only bring with them revenue but potentially additional jobs because of the needs of the airline’s ground handlers. Presumably more flights will keep the control tower busy as well.

And in the bigger picture of things where one Asian airline makes technical stops another may well follow. PAL is just one of many Asian airlines that fly between the continental U.S. and the Asian continent and presumably not the only airline that presently makes technical stops in Honolulu.

If the arrangement is successful there is obviously nothing to stop Guam’s airport officials pointing that fact out to other airlines in the Asian region.

There is a case here for the airport becoming a technical hub in the same way that it has become a route hub for Continental Micronesia.

Indeed the technical landings may also keep Guam on PAL’s radar and cause it to reexamine the possibility of additional flights between Guam and Manila.

The attractions of the Guam airport are obviously not lost on PAL — the airport is not only in a U.S. territory not only well-run and able to deal with PAL’s potential increase in technical needs but — most importantly — has location location location as our real estate friends say.

From an emotional standpoint to be defined as an airport Guam’s airport — like any other — needs to have planes landing and taking off. The more planes that come and go the more vibrant and busy the sense of the location as an airport — all of which contributes to the positive impression of activity.

This Journal hopes nothing prevents the board from voting ‘yes’ to a sound commercial proposition and looks forward to reporting on the growth of the relationship between Philippine Airlines and Guam’s airport.

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