Camalaniugan Airport

The primary reason for its closure was military redundancy. The airfield was built for a specific, temporary military purpose during WWII. After the war ended and Japanese forces in Northern Luzon were defeated, the U.S. military no longer had a strategic need for a forward fighter strip in this location. Subsequently, it was completely superseded by the larger, paved Tuguegarao Airport (TUG) for regional needs, and more recently by the modern Cagayan North International Airport (LLC) located just a few kilometers away in the adjacent municipality of Lal-lo, rendering it entirely obsolete.

The site of the former airport is now completely non-operational. Satellite imagery shows the faint outline of the former grass and dirt runway, which is now entirely overgrown with vegetation. The land has been reclaimed for agricultural purposes, likely serving as pasture for livestock grazing or as idle farmland. There are no remaining airport structures, and the site is in a state of natural decay, blending back into the surrounding rural landscape.

Camalaniugan Airport was a World War II-era airfield, constructed around 1945 by the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) during the Philippines Campaign. It served as a forward emergency and fighter strip for the Far East Air Forces (FEAF). Its critical role was to support Allied ground troops in the final stages of liberating Northern Luzon from entrenched Japanese forces. Operations would have primarily involved fighter aircraft (such as the P-38 Lightning and P-51 Mustang) and light liaison or transport aircraft. It was part of a network of temporary, often unpaved, airfields built throughout the Cagayan Valley and was never intended to be a permanent or commercial facility.

There are zero known plans or prospects for reopening Camalaniugan Airport. The development and recent opening of the modern Cagayan North International Airport (ICAO: RPLH) in nearby Lal-lo provides the region with a state-of-the-art facility capable of handling jet aircraft. The existence of this new airport makes any investment in rehabilitating the small, unpaved, and defunct Camalaniugan airstrip economically and logistically unfeasible. It is considered permanently closed.