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Manila Bulletin devider Opinion devider Our airport, tsk tsk

Our airport, tsk tsk

Published May 3, 2023 04:03 pm

MEDIUM RARE

In a greet-and-meet with the Filipino community in Washington, D.C., PBBM invited them to go home to a bet-ter airport, roads, government, and internet. This was after an eight-hour power outage at our airport’s Terminal 3 canceled/delayed 50 flights and pun-ished some 9,000 passengers on May 1, a holiday. Power was restored at 8:45 a.m., but only for a while, because at 3:30 p.m. the lights went out again. No one at MIAA who heard the President’s invitation had skin so thin that they felt embarrassed enough to take a selfie showing their red faces. What is it about NAIA and holidays? On New Year’s Day 1-1-23, a hair-raising disruption of the air traffic management traffic system similarly impacted holiday travelers, followed five months later by another incident. What is wrong with our airport? The airport authority blamed Monday’s incident on “ageing cables” and a generator that was working at 30 percent capacity. Their explanation shows that it’s people to blame, not things. People check supplies and equipment, people buy, use, maintain generators. If the most modest com-mercial establishment has the commonsense to keep a genset ready at all times for those expect-the-unexpected power failures, why can’t MIAA? Our airport is far from perfect, truly, with the extra distinction of being a most stressful airport, but Trans-portation Secretary Jaime Bautista – who had a comparatively cushy job as PAL president before he joined the Marcos cabinet – has plans to sell NAIA to the private sector. Unfortunately or fortunately, businessmen don’t seem too keen to take a bite of the pie, in light of the experience of a consortium that tried but refused to take over the airport years ago, due to a tangle of issues that could’ve driven any group air-sick. Besides, now that Ramon Ang’s airport in Bulacan is about to take shape, why bother adopting a facility that has outgrown its usefulness? Dubai with a population of less than four million is building the largest airport in the world, for 250 million passengers by the year 2050. To quote urban planner Jun Palafox, “this century will be airport-driven.” Where does that leave NAIA? Up in the air without a cushion for MIAA to land on?

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