Flight Safety Paralyzes NAIA Operations

30 May 2017

Ninoy Aquino International Airport NAIA) international runway was officially closed this afternoon at 13:06 today due to emergency runway repair works of potholes caused by landing of heavy aircraft. The repair is expected to last 4 hours and was completed around 15:30.

MIAA GM Ed Monreal said that domestic and international flight operations using narrow body aircraft will use runway 13-31 for arrivals and departures.

"I ordered for an emergency repair disrupting our operations at this time of the day than wait for our daily runway closure after the last flight tonight. I will never compromise safety of flights and passengers," Monreal said.

Monreal added the pothole would have caused major accidents if it wasn't repaired immediately.

Airport operator MIAA disclosed that at least 27 flights were affected by the repairs with 9 flights cancelled, 7 were delayed and 11 were diverted to Clark airport in Pampanga, including international PAL flight arrivals from Japan and china and departures to the Middle East and London, as well as flights of Cathay Pacific, Japan airlines, ANA Airlines, Singapore Airlines, among others.

Flight disruptions was further aggravated by weather conditions in the evening prompting ground movements at the airport to be stopped to avoid repetitions on lightning strikes and causes delays in flight departures of aircraft already on gates.

Almost 100 flights were affected with the man-made and non man-made closures.

4 comments:

  1. Runway damage again? Shameful isn't it? This worse not only NAIA, but also the Philippines. Philippines seriously needs new airport with two or more parallel runways.

    And by the way, what happened to the new airport plan? Is there any update about the new airport plan? And when it will finalize? This planning seems to be very slow. I thought financial aids from such companies looks OK now. There is now money. But why does the planning of new airport is not yet been done?

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    1. The plan is easy....Develop CRK Airport that is currently on-going construction or Sangley in Cavite. We cannot build another airport in any parts of Metro Manila because of congestion. In other countries, their gateway airports is way too far from the metropolitan cities like Tokyo and Singapore. Also i hope the Manila-Clark Railway will approve it.

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    2. To make it easy, develop Clark International Airport and make it bigger such as installing additional two to three parallel runway, building much bigger passenger terminals for legacy and budget airlines, and constructing Manila to Clark railway line. In developing Clark International Airport, there is no need for land reclamation offshore and no need also to spend much bigger compared to Sangley Point offshore airport. It will also decongest the Metro Manila.

      It is up to the government if the name of Manila will be used for Clark International Airport or not. If the name of Manila will be used, this will be one of the airport serving the capital city of the such countries but outside or too far from the capital city such as Tokyo in Japan (Narita Airport in Chiba), Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport both in Selangor), Seoul in South Korea (Incheon International Airport in Incheon), Rome in Italy (Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Fiumicino and Ciampino–G.B. Pastine International Airport in Lazio), Washington D.C. in USA (Washington Dulles International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport both in Virginia and Baltimore-Washington International Airport in Maryland), and many more. If the name of Manila will not be used, Philippines is one of the countries with large airport/s which is not located or serving capital city such as Switzerland (capital: Bern; large airport: Zurich Airport in Zurich), Germany (capital: Berlin; large airports: Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt and Munich Airport in Munich), and many more.

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  2. Looks like primary gateway will be put on hold again. Transport emergency power seems not the priority/urgent bill lately as per Sen. Poe (confirmed on a radio interview today) to address the countries transpo issues. Gov't is no longer keen to talk about it nowadays. They are more busy with tax revisions etc...

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