Kapalong, PH 🇵🇭 Closed Airport
PH-0260
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95 ft
PH-DAV
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Loading...GPS Code: Not available
Local Code: Not available
Location: 7.63948° N, 125.69154° E
Continent: AS
Type: Closed Airport
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Circa 2017. While an exact official closure date is not publicly documented, the airstrip's cessation of operations is strongly correlated with major security incidents involving its parent company in that year.
The closure was primarily due to severe security risks and operational disruptions. In April 2017, facilities owned by Lapanday Foods Corporation in the Davao region were subject to coordinated attacks by the New People's Army (NPA). Operating an aircraft from a remote, unsecured field would have posed an unacceptable risk to personnel, aircraft, and company assets. The heightened security threat in the region likely made continued air operations untenable, leading to the airstrip's closure as part of a broader security and operational reassessment by the company.
The site is no longer an active airport. Based on recent satellite imagery, the physical runway is still visible but is no longer maintained for aviation. It has been repurposed as an unpaved access road for farm vehicles and equipment within the banana plantation. The surface is a mix of dirt and overgrown grass, and there are no aviation markings or supporting infrastructure remaining.
The Lapanday Foods Delta Airstrip was a private aviation facility crucial to the logistics of the Lapanday Foods Corporation, one of the Philippines' major producers and exporters of bananas. Its primary purpose was to support the vast agricultural plantations in the remote areas of Kapalong, Davao del Norte. Operations handled by the airstrip included:
1. **Agricultural Aviation:** Deployment of small, fixed-wing aircraft for crop dusting, primarily for applying fungicides to control diseases like Black Sigatoka, which is common in banana plantations.
2. **Personnel Transport:** Efficiently moving company executives, managers, and technical staff between corporate offices in Davao City and the remote plantation, bypassing difficult or time-consuming ground travel.
3. **Light Cargo:** Transport of urgent, low-volume, high-value cargo such as spare parts for machinery or important documents.
There are no known plans or public prospects for reopening the airstrip. A return to service is highly improbable given the likely security-related reasons for its closure, the significant cost of re-establishing and securing aviation operations, and the probable corporate shift towards more secure, ground-based logistics and transportation methods.
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