NAIA partially opens

MANILA, Philippines —The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) resumed partial operations yesterday morning after being closed due to the eruption of Taal Volcano, which affected even President Duterte’s Sunday night flight to Manila.

The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) announced the partial resumption of operations beginning 10 a.m. for departures and arrivals at noon after inspecting the runways of the airport. ?“This, however, will be subject to terminal capacity of the four NAIA terminals and airline consent. Under the situation, separation time between flights will be longer to give MIAA and CAAP better capability to manage terminal and runway capacities,” the statement said.

Even the President was affected by the eruption of Taal as ashfall prevented him from taking a flight to Manila last Sunday. ?“(President Duterte) is still in Davao and could not fly to Manila from Davao last night (Jan. 12) because visibility was – and could still be zero. But he told me he would be flying this morning and might land in Clark instead and proceed to Manila by land,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a text message to the media yesterday morning. ?“He will take whatever transportation available to be able to reach Manila today,” he added. ?Panelo later announced that Duterte landed safely at NAIA, his aircraft the first to land at the airport. ?More than 100 flights were canceled last Sunday because of the Taal Volcano eruption.  ?Duterte pushed through with his scheduled visit to the Marines yesterday in Fort Bonifacio, where he handed over firearms and conferred the Order of Lapu-Lapu on some military personnel. ?Panelo said the President would also be having a live interview with him anytime this week to talk about national issues. ?Malacañang canceled government work and classes in Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Calabarzon regions yesterday as recommended by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. The suspension did not cover frontline agencies involved in disaster response, delivery of health services and other vital services.

Departure flights prioritized

At a press conference, MIAA general manager Ed Monreal said departure flights would be prioritized so the NAIA ramps can be cleared of planes that have been parked since the suspension of flights the night before.?On Sunday evening, the CAAP released a Notice to Airmen for the suspension of arrival of flights from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. and departing flights from 6:22 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the NAIA due to ashfall from Taal Volcano. However, this suspension was extended until yesterday morning.?Monreal said an estimated 516 flights were affected from Sunday evening to Monday noon, involving around 80,000 passengers. Later in the day, however, the situation at NAIA eased with less stranded passengers as nine international and eight domestic flights were able to leave.

The MIAA said NAIA welcomed its first flight arrival since the suspension with PR 127 from JFK in New York landing at 12:21 p.m., while PR 318 bound for Hong Kong was the first flight departure, which took off at 12:31 p.m.

Other terminals, meanwhile, welcomed at least 13 international flights and two domestic late Monday.

Monreal said airline operators need to submit a systematic schedule of recovery flights.?CAAP director general Jim Sydiongco said airlines would also have to do their own cleaning and inspection of aircraft before being able to depart.?“The MIAA through its independent slot coordinator, ACA, requested airline operators to submit ASAP their flight cancellations for today to give the slotting committee more room to allocate slots to airlines wishing to mount recovery operations,” the MIAA said.?Asked how soon it would take for operations to return to normal, Monreal said this is difficult to determine, noting that Taal Volcano is still active and they are only able to have partial operations because there is no ash falling in the airport.?“If the wind direction changes, we will go back to square one,” Monreal said in Filipino.?“So what we can assure you, together with the airlines, is that we will take the best and necessary actions to take back the operations to normal,” Monreal said.?Monreal said the MIAA began clearing the runways, taxiways and ramps of ash since 4 a.m. yesterday. Clearing of these facilities continue as of press time. He added that airline operators were informed that there are still traces of ashfall on the NAIA ramps. ?Sydiongco also cautioned airlines to take into consideration the possible presence of ash clouds as monitored by the Volcanic Advisory Center of Japan. Monreal again appealed to passengers to continue coordinating with the airlines to confirm their updated flight schedules.?Airlines were also strictly advised to submit realistic departure schedules owing to the need to inform passengers, assign flight crew and aircraft dispatch.