Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) General Manager Cesar Chiong offered his "sincere apology" on Tuesday, Jan. 10 to the thousands of passengers who were affected by the New Year flight cancellations at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
Chiong was one of the resource persons physically present during Tuesday's House briefing on the disastrous power outage that practically paralyzed NAIA last Jan. 1.
"Good morning honorable members of the Committee on Transportation, on behalf of MIAA we would like to sincerely apologize to all the passengers and to all the families that were affected during the Jan. 1 incident," Chiong said. MIAA is the operator of NAIA.
According to Chiong, a total of 414 flights were cancelled on New Year's day, which was a Sunday. Of the cancelled flights, 99 were international while 315 were domestic.
Some 65,000 passengers were affected, the MIAA chief bared.
"However, on Jan. 2, we were able to recover almost the same number of flights that we operated, similar to the number that we operated last Dec. 31," he told the House panel. A total of 755 flights were successfully handled on Jan. 2, compared to the 758 last Dec. 31.
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"After Jan. 2, there were no more flight cancellations related to the ATM outage," Chiong added.
The official was referring to the Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Systems for Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) at NAIA, which was reportedly the apparatus that glitched last Jan. 1, resulting to the mass flight cancellations.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) maintains the CNS/ATM.