The Ninoy Aquino International Airport experienced a technical issue on New Year's Day that affected thousands of travelers, and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) declared that it will not hesitate to look into the matter.
On Tuesday, CAAP Deputy Director General Edgardo Diaz said, "Open po kami dyan. We are happy to engage with them and show them whatever they want, so nakahanda po tayo at wine-welcome natin yan."
[We're open to that, in other words. We are prepared and looking forward to talking with them and showing them whatever they desire.]
Sen. Grace Poe declared on Monday that the investigation will start after all airport-related issues had been handled.
The Senate Committee on Public Services is being led by Poe, who said, "Give them time to resume normal flying operations. After that, we will undertake an inquiry and order them to give a comprehensive report of what caused the alleged problem and power loss."
In a Laging Handa briefing, Diaz stated that operations were back to normal and that they were still working with carriers to organize recovery flights to help impacted passengers get to their final destinations.
Meanwhile, Sen. Joel Villanueva on Tuesday filed Senate Resolution No. 390 in a bid to conduct an investigation into what happened at the airport on Jan. 1.
In the resolution, Villanueva cited Transportation Sec. Jaime Bautista who said there was a need to revamp NAIA's air traffic management system.
At a press conference on Sunday, Bautista said upgrades would cost over ₱13 billion
Diaz said the equipment, while constantly going through maintenance, was at its "half life."
"Hindi pa naman completely obsolete, though we need upgrades to make sure na siya ay makatutugon sa lahat ng mga pangangailangan sa ngayon," he said.
"Maganda pa po ang performance niyan, ang nangyari lang ay nawalan tayo ng power kaya bumagsak ang kanyang operation," Diaz added. "Pero noong manumbalik ang power, naibalik natin siya sa tamang takbo niya."
[Translation: It is not completely obsolete, though we need upgrades to make sure it can meet the needs today. The performance is still good, but what happened was we lost power so operations bogged down. But once power returned, it resumed to normal.]
Villanueva added the NAIA mess affected thousands of people, among them 3,000 overseas Filipino workers whose jobs might be compromised as they were unable to return to work as scheduled.
Apart from this, Villanueva said the incident "may also hinder the continuous promotion of tourism in the country" which was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"A poor air traffic management system will pose further challenges to the recovery of the industry," he said.
Source:https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2023/1/3/caap-naia-senate-investigation.html
Post a Comment