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Friday, March 29, 2024

Aviation clarifies air traffic congestion

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The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines  on Wednesday  clarified  the reported air traffic congestion that  caused flight delays at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport particularly last  Monday. 

Gen. Rodante Joya, CAAP   deputy director general for operations,  was referring to safety concerns raised when landing aircraft were compelled to hover for an extended period  over the  airport while  Typhoon “Lando” was     pounding Northern Luzon.    

Joya pointed out that Naia is limited to  only 40 runway events in an hour. “NAIA has only one runway that can accommodate jetliners. The secondary runway that was recently activated can only accommodate small aircraft.”

Stressing  runway limitations,  Joya  thanked Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez for giving the aviation authority the chance to clarify the  issue on air traffic congestion.

Romualdez claimed that the “horrible traffic congestion” forced the plane he was in to hover for an hour over the metropolis until the aircraft was given clearance to land   on Monday   night.       

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Joya explained that aircraft coming from the southern part of the Philippines, particularly from the Visayas and Mindanao, could not immediately land   on Monday   because of other north-bound planes that had to cancel and needed to return toNaia.

“Those [aircraft] returning to Manila were not scheduled to arrive during that time.    So they eventually clustered. Therefore there is no choice for our air traffic controllers but to make them hover over Metro Manila so they can  line  up for landing,” Joya said, adding that priority landing or takeoff is given to commercial jetliners and other big aircraft. 

The   CAAP   official said that the fact that every airplane was able to land safely   on Monday   despite the inclement weather  spoke volumes on the capability of   air traffic controllers.   

“That is proof of the ability of our air traffic controllers to maintain the safety of flights, helping them all land in Manila safely,” Joya said.

He lamented, however, that there were 14 air traffic employees  who left   CAAP   this year for greener pastures. 

The  14 were offered the same job with higher pay in airports in Middle East particularly Doha and Qatar.

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