SAP: NAIA incident ‘an eye-opener’

MANILA— Special Assistant to the President (SAP) Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go yesterday said the recent accident at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) runway and the resulting flight cancellations and delays are an “eyeopener” for government.

In an interview, Go said the incident showed that there is a need to always have a contingency plan.

“No one wanted an accident to happen. This serves as an eyeopener for us,” he said.

Go said government is already working on long-term solutions to decongest NAIA, particularly by improving the Clark International Airport in Pampanga as well as developing new ones in Bulacan and Cavite.

The Duterte administration had earlier approved the expansion of the NAIA at a cost of P350 billion, divided into two phases. The first phase includes the improvement and expansion of terminals in the current NAIA land area.

The second phase involves the development of an additional runway, taxiways, passenger terminals, and associated support infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the expansion of Clark is ongoing with the construction of a 100,000-square meter passenger terminal that will double the airport’s capacity to eight million passengers a year.

The National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) had also approved on April 25 a proposal for the construction of an airport in Bulacan. When completed, the proposed Bulacan airport aims to accommodate 100 million passengers a year.

“We will have more airports outside of Metro Manila to ease travel),” Go said.

Thousands of passengers were stranded starting Thursday night when Xiamen Air flight MF 8667 flying into Manila from Xiamen, China skidded on NAIA’s main runway due to bad weather condition.

No one was hurt in the incident but it caused hundreds of canceled flights in all four airport terminals. Some flights also had to be diverted to other airports.

Go expressed government’s apology on behalf of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) and the Department of Transportation (DoTr) for the series of flight cancellations and delays.

“We apologize. On behalf of the CAAP and DoTr, we are asking for your understanding and patience. I am just thankful that no one for hurt in the incident),” he said.— PIA-3