Power back at NAIA, but still no aircon

Partial power has been restored at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal I but the airconditioning units are not yet operating and the heat caused a Norwegian tourist to faint yesterday morning.

The Norwegian passenger, who was not immediately identified, was waiting for a departing KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight to Amsterdam when he apparently suffered a heat stroke and fainted at around 8:45 a.m. at the crowded departure area.

Airport officials said the Norwegian was revived after drinking water that was provided by his companions. The tourist was able to board his flight for Amsterdam.

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) had already restored full power at the nearby Manila Domestic Airport and the NAIA Terminal II also known as the Centennial Airport that services both international and domestic flights of Philippine Airlines.

However, only partial power has been supplied to the NAIA I to operate the lights, computers, and escalators but power is not enough to run the airconditioning system.

All the foreign airliners operate at the NAIA I where thousands of Filipino and foreign passengers pass through.

Mounting complaints about the heat at Terminal I prompted officials of Dnata, a ground handling firm, to lend one of its mobile airconditioning units to the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA).

The borrowed mobile airconditioning unit, designed for emergency use in narrow-bodied Airbus jets, was not enough to lessen the heat at the vast airport departure area.

An MIAA official said when power supply was restored at 2:40 p.m. at Terminal I, Meralco engineers instructed the airport operations personnel not to immediately turn on the airconditioning system to avoid a power overload.

"We could only turn on the airconditioning units gradually. If we turn them on all at the same time, we might experience overloading and a probable blackout which is worse," an MIAA officer said.

NAIA Terminal I had only been using partial power and had remained without airconditioning since Thursday when a Luzon-wide power outage occurred in the aftermath of typhoon "Milenyo."

MIAA’s power generator supplier and operator, Powergen, had failed to provide sufficient power to operate all the electric equipment at the terminal, including chillers and air-conditioners.