CAAP shortens air traffic outage to 2 hours from 6

THE Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has decided to shorten the maintenance work period at Air Traffic Management Center (ATMC) from six hours to just two hours.

“CAAP would like to inform the public that there has been a change in the schedule for the ATMC Corrective Maintenance Activity that was previously announced to take place on May 17, 2023 from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m.,” said CAAP spokesperson Eric Apolonio.

“Based on careful process reviews and simulations, the maintenance activity will now be conducted in a shorter period of time on May 17, from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m.,” he added.

Major airlines earlier made some adjustments to flight schedules to give way for the said activities on the country’s Air Traffic Management System, which are being made to avoid a repeat of the infamous New Year’s Day shutdown.

The ATMC houses the Communications, Navigations, Surveillance / Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) system which manages and supervises the air traffic activities within the Philippine Flight Information Region (FIR).

The ATMS power supply upgrade will involve the installation of a bypass panel to provide seamless ATMS operation and the reconfiguration of the existing distribution panel to segregate ATM system A (voice) and ATM system B (data), resulting in the UPS and AVR serving as each other’s backup in case the other power supply encounters a problem.

Apolonio said CAAP is set to implement contingency procedures through direct coordination with adjacent Flight Information Regions ( FIRs), which will help to minimize disruption to air traffic operations.