Nearly 300 flights disrupted at Naia

THERESE DELA PAZ was looking forward to spending time with her relatives in Iloilo on New Year’s Day. With her were her husband and their one-year-old daughter.

From San Mateo, Rizal, the Dela Paz family was at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) two hours prior to their flight. They were excited to see their relatives after a year of just talking over their mobile phones.

However, their excitement turned to horror after learning that their flight had been cancelled. Flight operations at the Naia were temporarily halted on New Year’s Day after the gateway experienced some “technical issue involving the radar frequency” at the Air Traffic Management Center (ATMC) of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) on Sunday.

“When we arrived at the airport, we were shocked that there were a lot of people in the check-in area. We were able to check in for our flight to Iloilo after 30 minutes. However, 45 minutes before our boarding time, we had yet to know our assigned gate. The airline then announced that they are expecting delays due to some system outage problem,” Dela Paz, a 30-year-old freelancer, said.

Their flight bound for Iloilo was supposed to leave Manila at 1:10 p.m. Announcements from the airport’s public address system were made at 1:30 p.m.

“We thought it was just select flights that were cancelled. At around 2 p.m. we were told that our flight was included in the cancellation,” she said.

The Dela Paz family is just one of the tens of thousands of passengers affected by the technical issue at Naia on Sunday.

282 flights affected

AS of 4 p.m., a total of 282 flights were “either delayed, cancelled or diverted to other regional airports affecting around 56,000 passengers in Naia,” according to the Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa).

Miaa immediately implemented its crisis management protocols after learning of the radar frequency problem.

Airline operators on the other hand have initiated their respective contingency measures to mitigate the effect of the situation on their passengers.

The rights of passengers under the Air Passenger Bill of Rights (APBR) shall be upheld under the circumstances, according to Miaa.

Cebu Pacific, Philippine Airlines, and Airasia Philippines separately announced that they are providing free rebooking for the affected passengers. They also said they are providing passengers with meals, drinks, and, for some, hotel accommodations.

“We started rebooking our flights at 2:09 p.m., and we finished at 4:08 p.m.,” Dela Paz lamented.

Partially restored

AT 5 p.m., the Department of Transportation (DOTR) announced that the Miaa and Caap have partially restored the air traffic management system at the Naia.

Naia started accepting inbound flights at 4:30 p.m.

“The glitch which affected the entire Philippines is a developing situation that is continuously being monitored by Miaa and the Airport Operators Council,” the Miaa said.

For Dela Paz, what was supposed to be an enjoyable New Year’s Day turned out to be a disaster that is not one for the books.

“It’s a very tiring experience. It is one thing to have our flight cancelled, it is another thing to have our flight rebooked. The queue was so long that it took us two hours to finish and we have a toddler with us. We were also not offered meals and accommodation, contrary to what the airlines said,” Dela Paz said.