Following another power outage at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 which stranded thousands of passengers, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista to swiftly fix the problem.
According to the Presidential Communications Office, the Chief Executive gave the instruction after learning of the unexplained power outage at NAIA Terminal 3 on Monday. He ordered that all necessary assistance be provided to the affected passengers.
The Manila International Airport Authority, for its part, expressed regret for any inconvenience caused air travelers.
“MIAA operations personnel are continuously doing the rounds of Terminal 3 to provide assistance to passengers and answer inquiries they might have,” said the MIAA management.
They added that critical facilities were provided with standby power, allowing the partial operation of airline and immigration computer systems, as well as the processing of inbound and outbound passengers.
Additionally, the MIAA engineering team was collaborating with Meralco technical personnel to find the cause of the power outage as the DoTr also coordinated with the power distributor.
“We met with Meralco after power was returned. We also had discussions on how to move forward,” Bautista said.
‘Another failure’
Meantime, senators expressed their disappointment over the power outage, with Senator Grace Poe, who chairs the Senate Committee on Public Services, lambasting the DoTr and NAIA for “not learning anything from their earlier failures.”
“The incident shows another disruptive failure of the airport systems causing grave inconvenience to travelers,” Poe said in a statement. “It is not acceptable that whenever there’s a brownout, the whole airport’s system and travel would be disrupted.”
“It seems the DoTr and NAIA did not learn from their previous mistakes,” she added, referring to the technical glitch that paralyzed the country’s airspace last 1 January.
Poe also pointed out that the lack of functioning air conditioners in several parts of the airport is “not only troublesome but could even be precarious to health, especially for the elderly.”
Senator Nancy Binay said this recent power outage at the country’s gateway would put the Philippines in a bad light once more.
“Only a few months after the New Year power outage that crippled aviation and airport operations, we are again on every social media portal, news channel, and newspaper across the world,” Binay said in a separate statement.
And while flight operations are back to normal at NAIA Terminal 3, thousands of passengers were stranded at the airport for more than eight hours
Come early
Bautista and MIAA General Manager Cesar Chiong conducted an inspection of the airport to check on the situation of the stranded passengers.
International travelers with flights today were advised to come early to Terminal 3, as flight immigration formalities are expected to take longer due to the system’s downtime.
AirAsia Philippines Communications and Public Affairs Country Head Steve Dailisan, on the other hand, said they sincerely apologized to all affected passengers.
In other developments, the MIAA said it will conduct a comprehensive electrical audit to avoid future power interruptions and passenger inconvenience at the country’s premier gateway.
The MIAA said that based on Meralco’s assessment, the blackout was due to either faulty wiring or a short circuit.
Bautista, on the other hand, said the DoTr will secure the necessary budget and undergo procurements before conducting a full electrical audit.
With Anthony Ching and Raffy Ayeng