The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) announced Wednesday (10 February) that it has developed an end-to-end platform that will deliver corporate jet maintenance service despite the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma Eisma said the corporate jet maintenance “bubble” (CJMB) will be located at the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA), which also houses a crew-change hub for mariners that is being operated by the Department of Transportation (DOT). “The corporate jet maintenance bubble works in roughly the same concept — it will be a complete process that precludes any third-party engagement because the accommodations, amenities, and services are all in one place, and everything stays isolated,” Eisma explained.
She said the SBMA recognised the financial pressure faced by the aviation industry and had developed the CJMB to provide a safe, seamless, and efficient mechanism that will enable business jet operators in the Asia-Pacific region to meet their maintenance needs here in the Philippines despite the COVID-19 crisis. Eisma said the CJMB was developed in accordance with Resolution 84 of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), which authorised the SBMA to set up a corporate jet flight maintenance and crew layover hub at the Subic Freeport under a strict “bubble” concept, as recommended by the DOT and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).
Under the bubble concept, business jets may come into Subic for maintenance work without the limiting restrictions currently being implemented at other local airports. The end-to-end process was carefully tailored to ensure a level of safety that would meet existing guidelines from regulatory agencies like CAAP, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), International Air Transport Association (IATA), as well as the World Health Organisation (WHO), Department of Health (DOH), and the IATF.
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