Type airbase Condition active, as of 2016 In use 1919-present Elevation 23 m Owner Philippines | Controlled by Philippine Air Force Built by United States Battles/wars World War II Phone +63 2 832 5360 Year built 1919 | |
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Address Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines Similar Fernando-Air-Base, Antonio-Bautista-Air-Base, Imperial-Japanese-Army-Air-Academy | ||
C 17a globemaster iii landing and loading villamor air base
Villamor Air Base (IATA: MNL, ICAO: RPLL), named for Filipino WWII pilot Jesús A. Villamor is the home of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) and shares runways with the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). It is also known as Nichols Field or Nichols Air Base. Chiefly used as a PAF transport/helicopter airbase, it is also the military installation that the Philippine president uses when departing for foreign or domestic trips, though foreign departures are mostly done at the NAIA.
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Villamor air base
History
Nichols Field was built in 1919 by the United States during the Philippine Commonwealth period and in 1941 was used as an airfield by the United States Army Air Forces in the South West Pacific Theatre. The field was the location of the U.S. Far East Air Force's U.S. 20th Air Base Group. Also, based at the field was Troop F of the U.S. 26th Cavalry Regiment.
A Fifth Air Force base, Nichols Field was within the territory of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, December 1941 – January 1945.
Nichols Air Base
Designated Nichols Air Base after Philippine independence, in 1997 the base was reduced to make way for construction of NAIA Terminal 3 and Newport City.
In 2007, a Skyway exit to both the air base and NAIA Terminal 3 was completed.
In 2010, the AVSECOM van (called by some as Ninoy Aquino's death van) which had carried the body of Ninoy Aquino to the hospital after his assassination in 1983 was found rotting inside Nichols Air Base (now called Villamor Airbase). This was reported only two years later in the popular ABS-CBN News website. Photos of this "death van" were subsequently posted on the blog site of the Filipino investigative journalist, Raissa Robles, who reported the discovery.