A passenger bound for a flight to Japan waits for her delayed flight at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, in Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines, on Jan 2, 2023. - Reuters
MANILA (Bloomberg): The Philippines’ main airport will continue to have flight delays Tuesday (Jan 3) as airlines reel from a technical glitch on New Year’s Day that stranded thousands of passengers.
Operations at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in the capital region are expected to fully normalize Wednesday or Thursday, said Bryan Co, senior assistant general manager at the agency that manages the gateway. There will be no more cancelled flights but delays are expected, he told CNN Philippines Tuesday.
A power supply problem caused the Manila airport’s traffic management system to go offline for several hours on Sunday, which Co said disrupted holiday travel plans of more than 65,000 passengers. The Department of Transportation has launched a probe and senators are also planning an investigation.
Philippine Airlines Inc. will likely clear the backlog caused by the glitch "in a few weeks,” spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said in a separate CNN Philippines interview, adding that the carrier has deployed bigger planes and additional flights to normalize operations. Cebu Air Inc. is also working on the recovery of its network, the airline said in a Facebook post Monday.
PLDT Inc chairman Manuel Pangilinan was among those affected by the New Year’s Day delays, tweeting that he had to return to Haneda airport in Japan from a Manila-bound flight with radar and navigation facilities down in the Philippine airport.
"Six hours of useless flying but inconvenience to travellers and losses to tourism and business are horrendous,” he tweeted Jan 1. In a tweet the following day, Pangilinan said his companies are "happy to participate” in improving connectivities and power supply at the airport.
Transport Secretary Jaime Bautista on Dec.28 said the government plans to start accepting proposals this year to develop the more than 70-year-old airport, with the terms for its privatisation likely ready in the first quarter.
