Philippines main airport scrambles to restore normalcy after power cut strands thousands
- There were 361 flights either delayed, cancelled or diverted to other regional airports on Sunday, affecting about 65,000 passengers
- Outage was result of unprecedented failure of both primary and secondary power supplies, according to Manila’s airport authority
The Philippines’ main gateway scrambled to resume full services on Monday after a New Year power outage jolted its air traffic control and disrupted 300 flights, prompting calls from business leaders and a top senator for urgent action.
A failure of primary and secondary power supplies caused the outage at Ninoy Aquino airport, and it should take about 72 hours for airlines to normalise their operations, said Cesar Chiong, general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority.
There were 361 flights delayed, cancelled or diverted to other regional airports on Sunday, affecting about 65,000 passengers, while may other flights were rerouted around Philippine airspace.
Chiong said the airport was handling a maximum of 15 flights per hour on Monday morning, down from the usual 20.
Several of the airport’s four terminals were crowded on Monday, with long queues of people trying to re-book flights while other weary passengers slept on chairs or on the floor.
“In the 24 hours that we’ve been waiting, we are now very exhausted from lack of sleep, my body is aching from all the waiting,” said Kirana Mangkabong, 32, an overseas worker.