Senators are ordering the management of Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to improve its facilities after thousands of passengers were left stranded over the weekend due to the cancelation of hundreds of flights.
Flight issues continue today after Cebu Pacific Air and Air Asia announced the cancelations of several domestic flights.
The bedlam occurred after NAIA was forced to close its runway from Thursday night to Saturday after a Xiamen Airlines plane skidded off it. According to ABS-CBN News, the four recovery flights which the airline sent to NAIA without informing local authorities made the airport’s congestion worse.
AFP reported that Xiamen Airlines’ plane was removed from the runway on Saturday.
On Sunday, Senator Grace Poe said she would file a resolution today that would call on the senate to probe the tarmac mishap. Poe, the chair of the senate committee on public services, said that the public deserved “an acceptable explanation.”
Quoted by the Philippine Star, Poe said: “This is important, considering that NAIA remains the primary gateway for foreign tourists into the country. Note, also, that NAIA is operating at overcapacity. It was built to handle some 30 million passengers, but is currently accommodating around 42 million.”
“This is not the first time that a plane has skidded off the runway and it certainly won’t be the last,” she said in a statement. “Why did it take two days before operations resumed in NAIA? Couldn’t that be done faster so as not to cause inconvenience to thousands of passengers?”
In 2013, a Cebu Pacific Air flight that arrived from Iloilo skidded off the right portion of NAIA’s runway.
Poe also asked why the situation was handled poorly. CNN Philippines quoted her saying in Filipino: “Why did they let people inside NAIA until it became overcrowded? Don’t they have a policy to inform passengers [before their flights] whenever such incidents occur? If there are Free Mobile Disaster Warnings, can’t we also have Free Cancelled Flight Alerts?”
Poe noted that Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade, Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) General Manager Eddie Monreal, and airline executives are among those that will be summoned to attend the hearing.
Senator JV Ejercito also stated that the NAIA fiasco was a “signal for a new airport to be built,” adding that there should be a twin airport system between Clark International Airport in Pampanga and NAIA.
“At this point, the quickest solution for Manila’s airport problems is to have a twin airport system between Clark and NAIA, just like Haneda and Narita in Tokyo,” Ejercito said in a statement on Sunday.
The government also needs to upgrade Manila’s air transportation infrastructure, senator Sherwin Gatchalian said in a statement.
“Improving our air transportation infrastructure is critical to fostering economic growth and tourism development. Most importantly, we have to make sure that accidents like this will not be able to paralyze air transportation going to and from the capital city of our country,” Gatchalian added.
The Xiamen Airlines aircraft on Thursday evening landed on its second attempt before skidding onto the grass, ripping off its left engine and blocking the runway of the NAIA until Saturday noon.
The plane’s pilot and the first officer are barred from leaving the country so they could appear in the Senate’s investigation, reported The Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Until today, NAIA remains chaotic. A report from CNN Philippines said Cebu Pacific and Air Asia have canceled several flights today. These are:
Cebu Pacific
• 5J 483/484 Manila-Bacolod-Manila
• 5J 451/452 Manila-Iloilo-Manila
• 5J 321/322 Manila-Legazpi-Manila
• 5J 467/468 Manila-Iloilo-Manila
• 5J 791/792 Manila-Butuan-Mania
• 5J 589/590 Manila-Cebu-Manila
• 5J 381/382 Manila-Cagayan de Oro-Manila
Air Asia
• Z20763 Manila – Cebu
• Z20764 Cebu – Manila
• Z20424 Manila – Puerto Princesa
• Z20425 Puerto – Manila
• Z20309 Manila – Iloilo
• Z20310 Iloilo – Manila
• Z2 225 Manila – Caticlan
• Z2 226 Caticlan – Manila
• Z2 761 Manila – Cebu
• Z2 762 Cebu – Manila
Meanwhile, Philippine Airlines said their operations would “normalize” within the week.
