Marcos went around NAIA Terminal 3 together with Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista and other airport officials to see the present situation of the domestic and international flights there following the technical glitch with the Air Traffic Management System (ATMS) of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) on January 1.
“Kami ay humihingi ng paumanhin at gagawin naming ang lahat para hindi na maulit ito,” he said in an interview with reporters.
(We apologize and will do everything we can to prevent this from happening again.)
Marcos said he discussed with airport officials and other concerned personnel plans for future redundancies, including the acquisition of necessary back-up equipment.
The President said he directed Bautista to fast-track all necessary negotiations, especially with equipment suppliers, to ensure the uninterrupted power supply.
Around 56,000 passengers were affected when nearly 300 flights to and from Manila were either cancelled, diverted and delayed due to the technical glitch which stemmed from the power outage that resulted in the loss of communication, radio, radar and internet at the ATMS, which serves as the facility for controlling and overseeing all inbound and outbound flights and overflights within the Philippine airspace.
Normal operations at the airport went back after six hours but it took several days before the flight operations fully recovered. (SunStar Philippines)