Philippines restores Air Traffic control after power outage

Agencies | Manila

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

The Philippines restored air traffic control operations after hundreds of flights were cancelled or diverted following technical issues that forced authorities to close the country’s airspace.

The Air Traffic Management Centre at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport resumed normal operations yesterday following a power outage, the Department of Transportation said in a Facebook post.

A problem with the power supply earlier in the day led to a “loss of communication, radio, radar, and internet,” Philippine Transport Secretary Jaime Bautista said.

More than 280 local flights were either delayed, cancelled or diverted to other regional airports affecting around 56,000 passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila as of 4 pm local time.

Normal operations resumed as of 5:50 p.m., while equipment restoration is still ongoing, according to the Department of Transportation.

The ATMC controls all inbound and outbound flights and overflights within the Philippine airspace. Without their direction, pilots would be flying blind against other aircraft.

There were no commercial flights in the Philippines earlier on Sunday, according to a tweet by Flightradar24, which tracks air traffic.

There were no immediate figures on the total number of affected flights that would have used the Philippine airspace, but a passenger on board a United Airlines Holdings Inc. plane to Singapore from San Francisco said it was diverted to Honolulu.

As of 0800 GMT, “the system has been partially restored thereby allowing limited flight operations”, the Manila International Airport Authority said in a statement.

By late evening, eight flight arrivals and eight departures had been allowed, according to the airport operator.

Video clips and photos posted on social media showed long queues at the airport and airline personnel distributing food packs and drinks to stranded passengers. “We’re told radar and navigation facilities at NAIA down.

I was on my way home fm Tokyo - 3 hours into the flight, but had to return to Haneda,” tweeted one passenger - Manuel Pangilinan, chairman of Philippine telecommunications conglomerate PLDT Inc.

“6 hours of useless flying but inconvenience to travellers and losses to tourism and business are horrendous. Only in the PH. Sigh.”

Budget carrier Cebu Pacific (CEB.PS) and Philippine Airlines (PAL.PS) said they were offering passengers due to fly on Sunday free rebooking or the option to convert tickets to vouchers.