Clark International Airport formerly the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport located within the Clark Freeport Zone serving the general area of Angeles City, Philippines. It is serves a number of airlines like AirAsia Philippines, Airphil Express, Cebu Pacific, Asiana, JejuAir, JinAir and TigerAiways. Clark is an hour and a half north of Metro Manila if you’re coming from Quezon City.
How to go to Clark from Quezon City
Get to EDSA-Cubao via MRT, LRT, or the many buses that pass by. From Commonwealth, you get buses going to Ayala, Alabang, etc. Alight onto one of the several bus terminals in the area, such as Dagupan Bus, Victory Liner, and Five Star. Take a bus to Dau in Mabalacat, Pampanga which cost Php. 135. I usually take Five Star hotel when I visit my relatives in Angeles City because it's cheaper and the buses leave every 15- 20 minutes with or without passengers. But for this trip I decided to take the Dagupan Bus since I won't have to cross the footbridge with my luggage. It was definitely a wrong call! My flight was at 12:15 PM and I arrived at the bus terminal at 7:40 AM but the bus left at 8:30 AM. Argh!
Anyway, from the DAU bus terminal and walk towards the nearby intersection. Take a jeepney to Clark Main Gate, and alight at Bayanihan Terminal near SM City Clark. From there, take jeepney going inside the Clark Special Economic Zone, and ask the driver to drop you off at “terminal”. I think it cost around Php. 12-15. However, the driver will wait until all seats are filled. So if you are running late, you can ask the other passengers to just split the fee. Since I already arrived around 10:20 AM, I agreed to the old lady when she asked me if we can just share so the jeep would leave ASAP.
I didn’t have to look aimlessly around when I arrived at the departure area because the facility is a bit small for an airport serving international flights.
This was my first AirAsia flight. Though they have a mobile check-in I opted for the counter check-in since I have a check-in luggage. If I remember it right, they have 3 kiosk at the side for those mobile check-in.
For those of you plan to do the mobile check-in, you will still need to go to AirAsia counter. They will weigh your carry-on luggage to see if it is under 7 pounds (the maximum you can bring on-board). Some people say that they strictly impose the 7 pounds. Apart from your 7 lbs max carry-on you can also have a laptop bag or smaller bag/purse.
Next is paying the travel tax. The travel tax counters are located at the far right of the airline counters. You can’t miss it. At the processing counter,submit your passport and your ticket. The personnel there will do some checking and you pay at the counter next to it. As of this posting it costs Php. 1,620.00 for international travelers.
Then proceed to the terminal fee counter. You can’t miss this because it’s in the way before you proceed to immigration. The terminal fee is Php. 450.00. It's a hundred peso cheaper than the terminal fee in NAIA.
It was definitely a surprise when I entered their boarding area. I think they only have 3 boarding gates. Boarding gate 1 was shared by 6 flights. Two from Cebu Pacific, One from TigerAirways, One from SEAAir, Two from Airphil Express, and One from AirAsia Philippines. It was a very long queue. The public toilet is not very clean too. The only good thing is that they have small food kiosk that sells food and souvenirs for a very cheap price (airport establishment standard) so if you get hungry while waiting, it wouldn't cost your budget that much.
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