Manila airport resumed operations on Monday, despite suspending about thirty routes, after canceling or diverting more than 280 flights on Sunday due to technical problems, the Philippine Department of Transportation reported.
The Secretary of Transportation, Jaime Bautista, said that “they have identified the main cause of the problem” that affected the loss of electricity and communication; and providing assistance to the 56,000 affected travelers, according to a statement.
“At around 9:49 a.m., the Air Traffic Management Center, which serves to control and monitor all incoming and outgoing flights within Philippine airspace, shut down due to a power outage, resulting in loss of radio, radar and internet communication,” Bautista said.
“The root cause was identified as a problem with the power supply … The secondary problem was the rise in tension due to the power outage that affected the equipment,” added the minister.
However, the ministry, in a social media post, announced on Monday the cancellation of 29 domestic and international routes, including flights to Dubai, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
The day before, images on social networks and televisions showed the accesses to the airport collapsed by traffic and large concentrations of passengers in the waiting areas of the airport, where airline employees offered them food and drink to compensate for the wait.
The country’s two main airlines, Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific, issued separate statements informing passengers of flights affected by the mishap.
Cebu Pacific also announced that it would offer the possibility to change the date of the ticket or exchange it for purchase vouchers without any additional cost to the customer.
