No landing slot at NAIA yet? Stay put, airlines told

Rappler.com

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Manila-bound domestic airlines are not allowed to take off from their airport of origin if they do not have an available slot yet to land at the congested runway of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia)

DELAYS. Runway congestions result in flight delays and terminals operating beyond capacity. Photo by Katherine Visconti

MANILA, Philippines – Manila-bound domestic airlines are not allowed to take off from their airport of origin if they do not have an available slot yet to land at the congested runway of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia).

This slotting system was announced by the Transportation Department and its attached agency, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap), on Monday, August 6, as part of continuing efforts to deal with the costly and numerous delays experienced at Naia runway.  

“The purpose of this is to reduce flights placed on holding patterns by the Air Traffic Control until safe landing spaces are available,” Caap director general William Hotchkiss III said, referring to the Coordinated Arrival Slotting System (CASS).

“Also, CASS helps airlines to save operational costs because airplanes, such as an Airbus A320, burns fuel worth about P7,000 per minute on a holding pattern,” Hotchkiss added.

The DOTC also said it is “lifting the Captain’s runway status of NAIA, a measure aimed to reduce runway occupancy and expedite aircraft movement on the ground.”

Earlier, the DOTC and CAAP asked local airlines to reduce the number of flights originating from or landing into Naia by 30%.  

Transportation chief Mar Roxas had also said he asked the local airlines to re-align their domestic flight schedules and not to mount new or additional flights at the Naia to help address the congestion problems at country’s main airport.

Roxas had said that local airlines hired a “slotting coordinator” from Australia that has developed a system that will adjust flight schedules at Naia. The system is meant to limit the number of takeoffs and landings at the airport to a maximum of 40 during peak hours, from 7 am to 4 pm.

He said cited data that flights registered at the NAIA runway during the summer season averaged 2,620 in a week, with actual events per hour going as high as 48.

Naia’s runway should only accommodate 36 events per hour, on the average, to maintain safety standards. – Rappler.com

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