MANILA, Philippines – After the initial announcement of a 12-hour shutdown, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) resumed operations at 6 pm on Tuesday, December 3, for a number of recovery flights.

The operations will resume for local carriers which conducted preemptive evacuations due to Typhoon Tisoy. During the time period of 6 pm to 11 pm, they will be allowed to bring the evacuated aircraft back to the airport. 

MIAA General Manager Ed Monreal said they have a total of 53 aircraft to manage during this time period, specifically 8 from Philippine Airlines, 15 from Air Asia, and 30 from Cebu Pacific and Cebgo. The NAIA has 84 parking slots available to accommodate these aircraft.

“With all those schedules coming in and bringing the aircraft, we are quite confident that the flights will go back to normalcy by tomorrow,” Monreal said. 

Allowing recovery flights will ensure that majority of the flights can push through by tomorrow. 

“Without these aircraft coming back to their hub here in Manila, recovery or normalcy of the operations will not be achieved,” Monreal said.

From 11 pm to 1:30 am, scheduled flights will be accommodated. Meanwhile, international carriers will be allowed to make recovery flights from 1:30 am to 3:30 am. This means that from 3:30 am on December 4 and onwards, the airport is expected to go back to normalcy.

The runways have also been cleared, according to Monreal.

Monreal urged passengers to come to the airport only if their flights are confirmed, and to reach out to their respective airline carriers for information about their bookings. – Rappler.com