Blackout disrupts flights at NAIA-3

MANILA, Philippines - Five international flights were affected by a five-hour brownout that disrupted operations at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 from midnight up to 5 a.m. yesterday.

NAIA 3 manager Octavio Lina said that a Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) electric sensor that supplies electricity to the terminal failed just a day before the scheduled maintenance checkup.

He added that 10 generators were activated to supply emergency power to five sensitive sections of the terminal and restored a semblance of normalcy.

However, employees complained that the generators failed to supply enough power to operate the passenger tubes, and the passengers instead used the mobile metal staircase to enter and exit the parked airplanes.

The five-hour brownout affected the departing Cebu Pacific flight to Incheon, South Korea and also the flights that arrived from Incheon, Pusan, and Hong Kong, and another flight from Pusan, South Korea.

“The passengers had to walk through the tarmac to get into the airplanes, and the same was true for arrivals,” Lina added.

NAIA 3 is about to undergo rehabilitation around the third quarter of this year, following the withdrawal of charges that were filed by the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. (Piatco) against the government.

It took almost 10 years of litigation before the parties came to an agreement to settle the amount of “just compensation” that Piatco received, being the main contractor of the multi-billion peso terminal.

The Department Transportation and Communications has allowed the Japanese contractor Takenaka to continue the delayed rehabilitation of the controversial terminal now being used by Cebu Pacific, AirphilExpress, Hong Kong Air and All Nippon Airways.

Jose Angel Honrado, general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority, said five flights of Cathay Pacific and two flights of Delta Air are expected to be transferred to NAIA 3 once the terminal is fully operational early next year.

He said some international flights would be transferred from NAIA 1 to NAIA 3 to decongest the 30-year-old terminal 1 now undergoing repair.