MIAA To Temporarily Shut Airspace On May 17 To Fix Airport Power Woes

The country's airspace will be closed for six hours on May 17 to allow for the replacement of the malfunctioning Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines' (CAAP) air traffic management system.

This came after a power outage lasting for 8 hours affected 9,391 passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 on Monday. The airport's power woes on Labor Day happened exactly four months after an electricity supply malfunctioned causing the air traffic navigation system to go offline on New Year's Day shutting down the country's entire airspace for about 10 hours which affected some 60,000 passengers and displacing at least 300 flights.

"It's the entire Philippine airspace that will be shut down," Bryan Co, senior assistant general manager at the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), said in this CNN report.

Co said the closure of the airspace will be conducted between 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. local time which are considered to be "lean" hours usually marked by lower air traffic.

"That's why they chose that window of time to do the repairs and upgrades because we know that's the least disruption to our airport operations," he said in this Philippine Star article.

CAAP has advised MIAA that the replacement of the UPS may take a shorter time than expected, Co said.

"These are all proactive efforts to, of course, make sure that the CNS/ATM (Communication, Navigation and Surveillance/Air Traffic Management) is reliable as an offshoot of what happened this year," he said.

He said CAAP, airport authorities and airline representatives will meet Wednesday to discuss plans during the shutdown. The MIAA official advised airlines to prepare for the airspace maintenance procedures by re-arranging their flight schedules and advising passengers to make alternative arrangements beforehand.

He said MIAA will be arranging meals and water for some 25% of passengers who may not be advised about the shutdown.

Senator Grace Poe in March called for the immediate upgrade of CAAP's critical equipment to prevent similar glitches. This came following an investigation by the Senate public services committee regarding the New Year's Day power outage in NAIA.

"There is much work needed for a better system. It is my earnest hope that through our investigative work, Congress will be able to assist CAAP in providing a system where travel in our airspace is no longer shut down by causes which could have been avoided," she said in her speech before the senate plenary.