Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 2) — The entire Philippine airspace will be shut down for six hours on May 17 due to maintenance activities seen to prevent more instances of power outages at the country’s airports.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) on Tuesday said the airspace will be closed shortly after midnight to 6 a.m. on May 17 to upgrade the country’s air traffic management system, repair the automatic voltage regulator, and replace the uninterruptible power supply.
In a press briefing, the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) explained that this means there will be no flight operations across the country during that time period.
“For six hours, wala talagang activity sa ating airspace [there will be no activity in our airspace],” MIAA Senior Assistant General Manager Bryan Co said.
“CAAP is saying it could happen na mas maiksi, pwedeng shorter [CAAP is saying the downtime could be shorter],\” he added. \”Pero [But] as far as planning is concerned, we’re planning six hours.”
The maintenance works come after the New Year’s Day technical glitch at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) that caused the cancellation of hundreds of flights, as well as the May 1 power outage which likewise affected thousands of passengers at the country’s main gateway
According to Co, authorities chose the midnight to 6 a.m. time frame as it would be the least disruptive to airport operations.
While the whole country is affected, CAAP also noted that the activities will mainly impact NAIA, Clark International Airport, Mactan-Cebu International Airport, and several flights at the other 42 CAAP commercially operated airports.
Meanwhile, a separate but shorter corrective maintenance activity will be conducted on May 3 from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m.
Airlines and airport authorities have already been informed last week of these airspace closures, Co said.
