CAAP conducts maintenance on its air traffic management center
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has conducted a maintenance activity at its air traffic management center which affected flight operations at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) for a few hours.
In its advisory, the CAAP said normal operations immediately returned after the maintenance activity from 4:20 a.m. to 5:23 a.m. on Sunday, Jan 22.
"The CAAP is grateful to the affected passengers for their patience during the said activity," the statement read.
The maintenance activity involved the replacement of the blowing/cooling fan for the second uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that is being used to power the Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance / Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) System housed at the Air Traffic Management Center (ATMC).
In anticipation to the power maintenance, the CAAP issued a notice to airmen (NOTAM) on Saturday night to inform concerned airlines .
The maintenance affected 28 departing and arriving flights.
There were nine affected flights held at NAIA’s taxiway Charlie for departure and 38 flights that waited for clearance delivery during the short outage that was necessary to complete the maintenance activity.
Despite some 3,500 affected passengers, no congestion was reported at the four NAIA terminals.
The system was fully restored at 6:09 a.m.
The maintenance activity was conducted three weeks after the CAAP-controlled ATMC was hit by a technical glitch that affected hundreds of thousands of airline passengers.