Iloilo-Mandurriao Airport in 2006 Iloilo's former airport,
Manduriao Airport, occupied the site from 1937 until late 2011 (the airport itself ceased operations in June 2007). In the 1990s, Mandurriao Airport was plagued with a myriad of problems such as outdated facilities and amenities, poor passenger comfort, operation limitations due to many obstacles, and limited expandability. The airport complex likewise was located directly alongside major city thoroughfares, in particular the city's main highway, the Tomas Confesor Highway, which complicated the flow of traffic in and around the area. At one point, the
Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, then known as "Philippine Air Transportation Office", which was already having difficulty managing vehicular traffic around the airport, proposed banning cargo and delivery trucks from passing through the road in front of the terminal building. However, the city government did not respond. This prompted authorities to have a new airport built outside Iloilo City, eventually selecting the municipality of
Cabatuan for the new airport. The site of
Iloilo International Airport is close to Barangay Tiring, where a World War II airfield formerly stood. The airport's passenger terminal, built in 1982, was left abandoned after the airport's closure and stood for many years alongside the control tower. Sometime between 2012 and 2013, the airport's terminal was demolished after the entire airport complex was acquired by
Megaworld Corporation. The control tower, demolished in 2021, was left untouched and served as a monument to Iloilo's aviation history and Philippine aviation history as well as a homage to Pope
John Paul II's 1981 visit to the Philippines, as Iloilo was one of his destinations in his 1981 itinerary and Iloilo's airport that year was in
Mandurriao.
ICon Iloilo Convention Center's construction was completed in September 2015 in time for the
APEC 2015. The lot where it stands on was donated by Megaworld Corp. The Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority allocated P200 million for the construction of the convention center, while another P250 million was sourced from the Priority Development Assistance Fund of Senator Franklin Drilon. ==Design==