NAIA 'starting to normalize' after air traffic system failure — airport official
MANILA, Philippines — Operations at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport have begun normalizing Tuesday following the air traffic system failure that took the entire country’s airspace offline, with a return to regular operations expected by Wednesday or Thursday, an airport official said.
“We’re starting to normalize already. So for today, we don’t have any canceled flights anymore, although we expect some delays on certain flights,” said Bryan Co, Manila International Airport Authority’s senior assistant general manager, on CNN Philippines’ “The Source.”
Co explained that normal operations mean that flights in and out of NAIA will go on as scheduled without extra flights mounted by airlines to make up for the flights canceled due to the air traffic system failure.
He said they are not yet declaring full normalization of operations at the country’s busiest airport because of delays due to aircraft rotation issues still caused by the technical failure that happened on New Year’s Day.
“By tomorrow, all of our flights in and out of NAIA will operate according to the published schedules,” Co said, adding that delays might still happen but will no longer be related to the failure of the Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Systems for Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) system.
Some 56,000 passengers were affected by the system outage, including 24,000 passengers of flag carrier Philippine Airlines.
PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna told CNN Philippines’ “The Source” that while they have mounted additional flights to fly affected passengers out, they may still have to sort out their backlog for “in a week or two.”
“Even if we’ve mounted extra flights, this is not enough to cover the 24,000, all 24,000 affected with the passengers. We hope to clear the backlog in a few weeks,” Villaluna said.
Transport officials admitted during a news briefing on Sunday that they were aware of the problems surrounding the CNS/ATM, particularly its being “outdated” as it was procured in 2010 but was only installed in 2018.
This still unexplained eight-year gap between procurement and installation is among the issues which Rep. Romeo Acop (Antipolo City) aims to look into in his proposed congressional investigation into the air traffic mess.
“We want to know what happened between 2010 and 2018,” Acop said over DZBB. — Xave Gregorio
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