Air traffic disruption in the Philippines leads to long flight delays

Manila, Philippines — Nearly 300 domestic and international flights at Manila airport in the Philippines were delayed, canceled or diverted on Sunday, leaving more than 65,000 passengers miserable over the New Year holidays after a power outage hampered operations of air traffic.

Transportation Secretary Jaime J. Bautista at an evening news conference apologized for the inconvenience and said authorities were working to help all affected passengers.

Bautista said the problem started in the morning when the Air Traffic Management Center, which oversees all flights in Philippine airspace, lost communication, radio, radar and internet due to the blackout. fluent.

The air traffic system was restored in the late afternoon and flights resumed at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Officials said they have asked airlines to mount more flights and switch to more wide-body planes to accommodate more passengers, and full recovery is expected after 72 hours.

Some travelers were outraged, including tycoon Manny Pangilinan, chairman of telecommunications company PLDT, who said he was on his way to Manila from Tokyo when the outage occurred.

“We are told that NAIA’s radar and navigation facilities are down. I was on my way back to Tokyo – 3 hour flight, but had to go back to Haneda. 6 hours of unnecessary flight time but the inconvenience to travelers and loss to tourism and business is horrendous,” he tweeted.