Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 4) — The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) is preparing in case the scheduled six-hour airspace shutdown on May 17 will be extended to give way to maintenance procedures.
“As part of our duty we have to plan for everything so we are looking also at a possible extension but that is very unlikely as of now,” MIAA OIC Bryan Co told CNN Philippines’ The Source on Thursday.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) announced on Tuesday that the country’s airspace will be closed from midnight to 6 a.m. on May 17 to upgrade the air traffic management system, repair the automatic voltage regulator, and replace the uninterruptible power supply.
Co told a Wednesday briefing that over 100 flights will be disrupted by the airspace shutdown.
Around 20,000 passengers are also seen to be affected by the maintenance activity, but the actual number could be lower since domestic flights tend to get booked near departure dates, Co noted.
As soon as airlines are able to close selling for the affected flights, there will be fewer passengers who will be affected, he explained.
Co added that over 20 airlines will be hit by the shutdown. The carriers most affected are Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, and AirAsia Philippines, he noted.
Since airlines were told about the activity earlier, the MIAA OIC said they were given enough time to set up their plans, adjust all flights affected, and inform passengers of the changes.
According to Co, airlines have already started publishing the retiming of their flights.
A shorter maintenance activity was done on Wednesday. From 2 a.m. to 4 a.m., CAAP replaced its facility’s automatic voltage regulator and was able to finish ahead of time, Co said.
For May 17, the major equipment to be replaced is the uninterruptible power supply, he noted.
“Both of these systems were affected if you remember there was a January 1 shutdown of our airspace. So these are the needed upgrades to address that problem,” Co said.
