Tag: Philippines

Fedex Express has extended the lease on its Asia-Pacific hub at Subic Bay, also signing an option to expand to the former Clark air base north of Manila in the Philippines, writes Keith Wallis in Hong Kong. Under the deals FedEx Express, the air express offshoot of one of the world’s largest transport companies, said the lease at Subic had been extended for another three years to 2010. The company also has an option to extend for a further period. FedEx has also signed an agreement with Clark International Airport Corporation that gives it a non-binding option to a 50 hectare site at the base, now renamed Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, until 2008. FedEx Express denied some media reports that relocating operations from Subic Bay to Diosdado Macapagal would cost it USD450m. But it declined to give further financial details before the release of group fourth quarter and full year results in about another three weeks.

FedEx, reportedly will sign on June 2 a USD450-million deal to formally relocate its Asia-Pacific business hub to Clark Field, Pampanga from the Subic Bay Freeport in Zambales.

“The deal will be concluded when FedEx executives come to the country this Wednesday. We’re just finalizing the extent of the lot they will lease,” an official said, on condition of anonymity. The official also said China was still hoping to snatch the FedEx deal from the Philippines.

FedEx’s contract with Subic Bay Metropolitan Area (SBMA) lapses in 2007, and the Tennessee-based firm reportedly plans to move to Guangzhou.

FedEx has denied a published report saying it has decided to locate its new Asia Pacific air hub in the Philippines.

The Inquirer News Service of Manila quoted Adelberto Yap, president and chief executive of the Clark International Airport Corp., as saying FedEx would sign a 25-year lease agreement April 11 to build a USD450 million complex near its current hub at the former military base at Subic Bay.

Earlier reports said FedEx would move its Asia Pacific base to Guangzhou, China.

FedEx Corp. is considering plans to make Incheon International Airport into one of its critical operations hubs in Asia, the government’s Planning Office of the Free Economic Zone said.

The planning office said that as part of this overall plan, the global shipping company has increased the number of weekly flights it operates out of Incheon from 13 to 20 as of Jan 6. Of these, five will fly directly to Subic Bay in the Philippines, which means that South Korea’s importance as a business center for the company will increase.