THE closure of a country’s airspace to commercial aviation, even for a few minutes, is a cause for concern because it portends some major events, usually calamitous. In the collective experience of Filipinos, the no-fly-zone policy is associated with coup d’état, as what happened during the Cory administration.
Many were surprised and expressed mixed emotions of fear and anxiety when all flights at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport were unable to land or take off during the first day of the new year, when passengers were most busy returning from a long vacation.
The official reason, as explained by CAAP Director General Manuel Tamayo late Sunday night, was that one of the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) equipment failed on Sunday morning, and troubleshooting activities had to be done.
Once the system was reconnected to the power supply, however, warnings were released at around lunch time due to over voltage as 380 volts were coming in instead of 220 volts. This then affected the very small aperture terminal (VSAT), which also had to be addressed.
Tamayo admitted that they are working with old and unreliable equipment, and that these incidents are most likely to happen.
“What we have been doing in CAAP, we budgeted P124 million to do some upgrades on the system and that is due this year, 2023, for procurement… Hopefully this will help extend the life,” he said, adding they will undertake more frequent monitoring of the system, which is already on a daily basis, as this is the first time it conked out after the system was procured in 2018.
Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista, who came from the aviation and maritime sectors, said the airport authority needs to have a modern, reliable backup system that is in a different location, not near the existing one. He promised to rush a feasibility study for submission to the NEDA “because this is a very important system that the Philippine aviation sector needs.”
As expected, several senators filed separate resolutions seeking to investigate the power outage and other problems that caused flight disruptions at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on January 1.
The lawmakers noted that NAIA has been regarded as the worst international airport for three years from 2011 to 2013, fourth in the world in 2014, and fifth worst in the world in 2016.
A senator pointed out that the aviation glitch affected thousands of lives “because many of the passengers are returning Filipinos whose jobs are on the line after missing their flights.”
Many in the tourism and travel industries were also concerned because incidents like this one will have a huge negative effect on Philippine tourism, and no amount of marketing can supersede airport inadequacies.
We hope the Department of Transportation and Malacañang will have the sense of urgency to act on this problem, with or without the benefit of a Senate investigation.
