Cauayan Airport is an airport serving the general area of Cauayan City

Cauayan City

Cauayan City is a 1st class city in the province of Isabela, Philippines. Cauayan City is the Agro-Industrial Capital of Cagayan Valley and The Commercial Center of The Province of Isabela...

, located in Isabela province

Isabela province

Isabela is the second largest province of the Philippines next to Palawan. It is located in the Cagayan Valley Region in Luzon. Its capital is Ilagan and borders, clockwise from the south, Aurora, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Ifugao, Mountain Province, Kalinga, and Cagayan...

 in the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. It is one of three commercially airports in Isabela, the other being Palanan Airport

Palanan Airport

Palanan Airport is a community airport in the Philippines located in the Pacific coastal town of Palanan, Isabela. It is one of the two community airports in the province, the other being Maconacon Airport in the municipality of Maconacon, Isabela....

 in the town of Palanan

Palanan, Isabela

Palanan is a remote 2nd class municipality in the province of Isabela, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 16,254 people in 2,837 households....

 and Maconacon Airport in the town of Maconacon

Maconacon, Isabela

Maconacon is a 4th class municipality in the province of Isabela, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 3,991 people in 786 households.-Barangays:Maconacon is politically subdivided into 10 barangays.* Diana* Eleonor...

. It is classified as a secondary airport, or a minor commercial domestic airport, by the Air Transportation Office, a body of the Department of Transportation and Communications

Department of Transportation and Communications (Philippines)

The Department of Transportation and Communications is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for the maintenance and expansion of viable, efficient, and dependable transportation and communications systems as effective instruments for national recovery and economic...

 that is responsible for the operations of not only this airport but also of all other airports in the Philippines except the major international airports.

Between 1999 and 2008, the airport hosted no commercial flights. Proposal were made to reintroduce commercial service the airport, such as an independent Manila-Cauayan route, as well as a route further on to Tuguegarao Airport

Tuguegarao Airport

Tuguegarao Airport is an airport serving the general area of Tuguegarao City, located in the province of Cagayan in the Philippines...

 in Tuguegarao City

Tuguegarao City

Tuguegarao City is the city capital of Cagayan, Philippines and the regional capital of Region 02 . Tuguegarao is the economic center of the Cagayan Valley Region; it is located on a peninsula in the Cagayan Valley. It is sheltered by the Sierra Madre Mountains in the East; Cordilleras in the...

. After almost a decade of not hosting commercial service, Cauayan Airport re-opened to commercial traffic on August 15, 2008 using PAL Express

PAL Express

PAL Express was the low-cost regional airline brand of Philippine Airlines. PAL Express operated from Mactan-Cebu International Airport in Cebu City, with smaller operations from PAL's main hub in Manila, flying primarily intra-regional routes in the Visayas and Mindanao, as well as secondary...

 aircraft, marking the return of Philippine Airlines

Philippine Airlines

Philippine Airlines, Inc. operating as Philippine Airlines, is a flag carrier of the Philippines. Headquartered in the Philippine National Bank Financial Center in Pasay City, the airline was founded in 1941 and is the first and oldest commercial airline in Asia operating under its original name...

 to Cauayan, having stopped its services to the city in 1994.

Airlines and destinations

Incidents and accidents

Cauayan Airport was the airport of origin and destination for two fatal incidents in Philippine aviation: Philippine Airlines Flight 215

Philippine Airlines Flight 215

Philippine Airlines Flight 215 was the route designator for a Philippine Airlines flight from Cauayan Airport to Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport which exploded en route to Manila.-Accident:...

 en route to Manila and Asian Spirit Flight 100

Asian Spirit Flight 100

Asian Spirit Flight 100 was a Let L-410 Turbolet that crashed onto a mountainside between the municipalities of Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya and Cabarroguis, Quirino in the Philippines. The aircraft was en route to Cauayan City in Isabela from Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila...

en route from Manila. Notably, it was Asian Spirit Flight 100 that forced the closure of the Manila-Cauayan route in 1999.