02.09.2026

Sayak Airport: A Bigger Terminal Now, a Longer Runway by 2027

The new terminal is open, night landing lights are funded, and the transport department says the runway will be extended for jets. What actually changes for getting to Siargao.

A motorised tricycle, the standard short-hop transport across the Philippines — Obsidian Soul · CC0

The short version. Sayak's expanded passenger terminal is open. Night-landing equipment is funded and portable lights are going in first, so evening departures should stop being cancelled at sundown. The runway extension that would let full-size jets land is still a plan, with the transport department now targeting completion in 2027.

Every conversation about Siargao's future eventually arrives at the airport. Sayak, on the west of the island near Del Carmen, is a single runway of about 1,400 metres with a terminal that until recently was built for around two hundred people at a time. Everything that comes to the island by air comes through it, and with the Philippines Pro two months away and a Championship Tour crowd on the way, the question of what the airport can and cannot do has stopped being abstract.

Over the last week the Department of Transportation has laid out its plans for regional airports, and Sayak is on the list. Here is what has been done, what is funded, and what is still a drawing.

Done: the terminal

The expansion of the passenger terminal broke ground in August 2025 and was pushed to be ready for the ASEAN summit the Philippines hosted in May. It roughly doubles the floor area, from about 716 to 1,531 square metres, takes the terminal's rated capacity from 200 passengers to at least 750, and takes the check-in counters from three to nine. There are, at last, enough toilets.

In practice this means the arrivals scrum has moved indoors, the queue at check-in on a busy morning is now three lines rather than one, and there is somewhere to sit when a flight is delayed. It does not change how many aircraft can land. It changes how pleasant it is to wait for them.

Funded: night landing

Sayak has never had a night rating. Flights have to arrive and leave in daylight, which is why the last departure of the day is mid-afternoon and why an afternoon thunderstorm can strand a plane, and its passengers, overnight. This year's national budget set aside 23 million pesos specifically for the night rating of Siargao Airport, and the transport department has told the civil aviation authority to install portable runway lighting as a stopgap while the permanent system is built.

For visitors this is the single most useful change on the list. Evening departures mean the airlines can add later rotations, which means more seats, and a delayed afternoon flight can leave at dusk rather than the next morning. When exactly the first evening flight operates has not been announced. We would not plan a November itinerary around it yet.

Planned: the runway

This is the big one, and the furthest away. Sayak's runway is too short for the narrow-body jets that fly the main domestic trunk routes, which is why the island is served by turboprops and small regional jets with limited seats and limited range. The transport department's feasibility study, which it says is nearly finished, points to an extension of up to 700 metres to bring jets in. The department has set a nationwide target of 2,100-metre runways at regional airports and has named 2027 as the completion target for the current round of extensions, Siargao among them.

The complication is geography. Sayak sits between mangrove forest on one side and hills on the other. Extending a runway through either is not simple, and the study is in part about which way to go. Treat 2027 as an intention rather than a date.

A longer runway would be a bigger change to this island than anything since the boardwalk was built. Direct jets from Manila with two hundred seats, and in time from Hong Kong, Singapore or Seoul, would double the number of people who can arrive in a day. That is a conversation the island is having with itself, and the surf community here is not of one mind about it.

What this means for your trip this season

Flights are still the bottleneck. The terminal is bigger, but the number of seats into Sayak per day has not changed. Book early, especially for late October and early November.
Cebu remains the easiest gateway. Most frequencies into Sayak leave from Mactan-Cebu, and a night in Cebu is the best insurance against a missed connection. Routes from Manila and Clark have changed more than once this year; check what is actually flying when you book rather than relying on an old guide, including ours.
Plan for daylight arrivals. Until the night rating is live, assume your flight lands in daylight and that a weather delay can push it to the next morning. Do not book an onward international connection the same evening.
The van to General Luna is unchanged. Shared vans and private transfers still meet every flight. Allow about forty-five minutes to town, longer in contest week.

The overland route, by air to Surigao City and then ferry across the strait to Dapa, is unaffected by any of this and remains a perfectly good way to bring a board bag. We wrote it up in the getting-to-Siargao post.

We will update this post when the first night flight is announced. Until then, come in the daylight, and come early in the day for the surf anyway.

Tagged: travel sayak-airport

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