Aircrafts set to land at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) have been diverted to the Clark International Airport (CIA) in Pampanga due to malfunctioning navigational equipment.
This is the nth time that flights have been diverted from the 31-year old Terminal 1 to the much larger and more equipped CIA.
Clark International Airport Corp. chief Victor Jose Luciano said 11 flights from Cebu Pacific and one each from Philippine Airlines and Air Philippines had to land at Clark because the very high frequency omni-range (VOR) at NAIA was “out.”
The Philippine Star reported that NAIA-bound aircraft started to arrive at CIA at about 1 a.m. Thursday and were able to fly back to NAIA by 4:47 a.m. Luciano said that last Oct. 9, CIA also accommodated 14 diverted aircraft from NAIA because of a faulty VOR.
The CIA has two 3.5-kilometer runways which are able to accommodate modern wide-bodied aircraft. Flights are often diverted to the CIA during emergencies such as zero visibility situations at the NAIA or because of air traffic congestion.
There have been proposals to make the CIA the country’s main airport. It has been reported that NAIA handled a record passenger traffic of 29,552,264 in 2011, making it one of the busiest airports in Asia.
However, President Benigno Aquino III himself had said that plans to create a world-class passenger terminal at CIA could not push through due to the lack of an efficient railway system to link Clark to Metro Manila.
The CIA is located more than 80 kilometers from Metro Manila. The president noted that the accepted distance between an international airport and the capital is only 40 kilometers. He added that the administration has yet to find a new partner for the planned railway system.
The Arroyo administration had earlier tied up with China to construct the railway system, but Aquino said the structures are not feasible.
