Private flights to Ormoc, Leyte

Ormoc is the western door to Leyte: the port where Cebu's fast ferries land, and the start of the road to Lake Danao in the hills above the city, to Palompon and the boats to Kalanggaman Island's sandbar, and across the island to Tacloban. It is a working city as much as a destination, the hub for Leyte's geothermal fields and sugar country, and a lot of the traffic between it and Cebu is business.

No airline flies the pair. The fast ferry across the Camotes Sea takes two to three hours pier to pier, several times a day, but the last sailing leaves mid-afternoon, and that timetable is the constraint for a day of meetings or an onward drive. A chartered Cessna 172 crosses from Mactan in about 25 minutes and lands at Ormoc Airport, minutes from the city.

The leg is priced in both directions for the whole aircraft, three seats, live in pesos and dollars, and a same-day return is straightforward. Anywhere else in Leyte or Samar is quoted on request. A booking is a request the operator confirms, usually within hours, and nothing is charged until they do.

Why fly to Ormoc

The case for flying is the working day. Leave Mactan at eight, be in Ormoc before nine, and fly back after a late meeting that the last ferry could not wait for. For a site visit, an inspection team with equipment, or a group heading on to Kalanggaman early before the day-trippers arrive, 25 minutes on your own schedule changes what fits in a day.

The case for the ferry is that it is good at what it does: frequent, comfortable and a small fraction of the cost of an aircraft, and for anyone without a deadline it is the sensible way across. Travellers between the two should check the empty legs page, where aircraft repositioning back to Cebu sell their seats at a steep discount.