Raffin

The "technical issues" that caused hundreds of flight cancellations here on New Years Day have now been revealed:

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/171134...nter-says-dotr

A UPS cooling fan conked out...a second UPS failed to come online...a Voltage Regulator failed to...well,..regulate!

If you, as I do, run a car and a desktop computer you will know these problems and that they can cause inconvenience and expense. But you would think the people in charge at NAIA would think of the far greater effects of neglecting their equipment?
A great advert for flying in or into this country!

freebie

An absolute balls up. People are employed , manuals are written, scenarios are practiced to prevent all this . And to do it on Jan 1st.. what a start to the year. This country is often a world leader at shooting itself in the foot. Flights from Davao to Manila shot up from p3500 to P20,000 for future days. Cebu pacific refuses to return cash and gives folk vouchers. A tourist visiting once has no interest in vouchers. The hotels around terminal 3 all closed discount rate categories and instituted rack rates for , p4000 rooms became p12000 plus plus. Grab provided surge pricing as a nice way for NAIA passengers to travel... total balls up, but not the first and I'm sure well have more this year. Anyone has any onions ???? lol

Stokkevn

Badly planned, managed, operated, maintained and the system is 4 years old so overdue for a massive outage.

mikemike

Perhaps the recently slated ''privatisation'' could not come soon enough

Gazza-d

We checked the flight status this morning and as everything was good set off for NAIA, Just hitting the viaduct section we get an email to say the flight was cancelled. You would think they could manage better than 3-4 hours advanced warning. Had to travel another 12km to the next exit to turn around to head back to Bataan. The flight was moved to Wednesday. So who's running NAIA, Mickey mouse's brother.

Stokkevn

No one as smart as him.

Raffin

Tempting given the situation. But it creates a monopoly given its central location in the NCR and will need to be regulated by the government. Would foreign companies want to or be welcomed to run it? If not we would get the "usual suspect" Philippine corporations with the great risk of regulatory capture as it's so difficult here to find qualified, unrelated, independent people to oversee public services..

Gazza-d

And followed by an unexplained fire and the raising of a new SM mega mall.

Gazza-d

With the new international airports being built in Bulacan and Cavite, rail link to the new terminal in Clark, NAIA would soon become a poison Chalice. Any foreign company would be mad to get involved with NAIA.

Raffin

Really? Did London Heathrow close when Gatwick,, Stansted and London City were developed? Yes, the PNR rail link to and from Tutuban in Manila is going to be constructed. Handy for Divisoria! But what about places like Makati? I haven't been able to find the projected travel time to Clark Int Airport...I wonder why?...but it's got to be at least 1.5 hours and may need a change. Presumably the Cavite and Bulacan airports will be bus links only. Some flights will likely to be moved to these peripheral airports from NAIA but for the reason that it will conflict with Jnr's ambition for tourism expansion here I don't see NAIA closing down.

Gazza-d

Clark to terminal 3 is only about that by car so I'd hope the train will be a bit quicker.

Raffin

Manila needs a subway system, then Clark could help more. At present only Makati starting to construct a subway. So Clark will be for Central Luzon and as an overflow for NAIA.

Gazza-d

NAIA's main problem is bigger planes can't use it. The likes of Emirates and Qatar go into Clark. The rail link is steaming ahead and is expected to be operational by 2024.

Raffin

I am reading that NAIA have now upgraded a taxiway to accommodate the largest planes.
My mind goes back to the time when they were looking at alternatives to LHR. In addition to Stansted and Gatwick there was an old US airfield in N Herts and an ambitious scheme at Maplin sands in the Thames Estuary. Both turned down because of lack of good transport links. Environmental issues for Maplin. The planned rail link to Clark has been very difficult to get to the point where it will now go ahead, as is the way with such projects here. I can't see any big new airport going ahead with good links to Manila, just some improvements at Clark. Don't know about Bulucan though.
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Raffin

An interesting piece from the Manila Times on the NAIA mess. New detail about 380v power supplies and about the claim that the Air Traffic Control system here is in need of huge investment. Which always seemed an attempt at distraction from the Transport Secretary. He was apparently President of PAL for 13 years in two stints. That explains a lot!

Interesting too they are going after Marcos appointed officials for blaming the previous President.

https://www.manilatimes.net/2023/01/...oo-boo/1872712