Sagay Airfield

The closure was primarily due to economic and logistical factors. As a private airfield owned by the Sagay Sugar Central, its operational costs became difficult to justify. Key reasons include:
1. **Economic Viability**: The declining need for private executive air transport as road infrastructure in Negros Occidental improved.
2. **Operational Redundancy**: The development and opening of the much larger and better-equipped Bacolod-Silay International Airport (BCD), located approximately 55 kilometers away, rendered small local airstrips like Sagay obsolete for regional travel.
3. **Changing Agricultural Practices**: A potential decrease in the use of aircraft for crop dusting in the surrounding sugarcane plantations.
4. **Land Value**: The land occupied by the airstrip became more valuable for other community and agricultural purposes.

The site is no longer a functional airfield. The concrete runway, while still clearly visible from satellite imagery, is in a state of disrepair and is not maintained for aviation. It has been repurposed by the local community and is now used as:
- **An access road** for local residents and farmers.
- **A site for drying agricultural products**, such as palay (rice) and corn.
- **An informal venue for motorsports**, particularly drag racing events, a common fate for abandoned airstrips in the Philippines.
Some residential and agricultural structures have been built along the edges of the former runway.

Sagay Airfield was a private airstrip owned and operated by the Sagay Sugar Central, Inc., a major sugar milling company in the region. Its history is representative of the numerous private airfields built across Negros Occidental, the 'Sugar Bowl of the Philippines,' during the peak of the sugar industry. Its operations were exclusively for General Aviation and included:
- **Corporate Transport**: Flying company executives, owners, and important guests to and from Sagay, connecting them to major cities like Manila.
- **Agricultural Aviation**: Used by light aircraft, such as crop dusters, for the aerial spraying of pesticides and fertilizers on the vast sugarcane plantations surrounding the sugar mill.
- **Utility and Cargo**: Occasional use for transporting critical spare parts for the mill or other light cargo.
The airfield never hosted scheduled commercial passenger flights and was not open to the general public.

There are no known official plans or credible prospects for reopening Sagay Airfield. Reopening is considered highly unlikely for several reasons:
- **Proximity to a Major Airport**: The entire northern Negros region is adequately served by Bacolod-Silay Airport (BCD), which can handle large commercial jets.
- **Lack of Economic Justification**: There is insufficient demand for commercial or general aviation traffic to Sagay to justify the significant investment required to rebuild the runway and construct modern terminal and safety infrastructure.
- **Inadequate Specifications**: The existing runway is too short and narrow for modern commercial aircraft and lacks the necessary navigation aids, lighting, and security fencing required by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).
- **Current Land Use**: The land is now integrated into the local community's infrastructure and agricultural activities, making acquisition and redevelopment for aviation purposes impractical.