By Recto Mercene
The Philippines’s leading low-cost carrier, Cebu Pacific (CEB), on Friday said it will closely work with the Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa) and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) to minimize passenger delays in line with the government’s efforts to address “constraints” at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia).
“Cebu Pacific remains supportive of the government’s collaborative decision-making approach to address runway constraints at the Naia. We will work closely with Miaa, Caap and the independent slot coordinator to produce retimed flight schedules to minimize passenger delays within the current aircraft-movement constraints that exist,” CEB said in a statement.
CEB’s statement was in reply to the BusinessMirror’s query about their reaction to the plan of local aviation authorities to “retime” the current air-traffic scheme to reduce congestion. Asked the same question, Philippine Airlines and PAL Express, including AirAsia Zest Philippines, had requested more time to review the proposal and how it would affect their internal procedures.
The Miaa last week said they will adopt a new scheme to address flight delays in March by adopting a more efficient implementation of the current policy on flight movements per hour.
Currently, the traffic movement calls for 40 airplanes to land and takeoff every hour. Anything outside of that number had to wait, forcing airplanes to fly for hours over designated holding pattern, waiting for their turn to land.
Those running out of fuel or those airplanes that do not want to wait more than 30 minutes simply fly to Clark, only 15 minutes away. Others proceed to their alternate airports and wait until their turn to come back and land at the Naia.
According to CEB, the airline is also encouraged by the Miaa’s plans to move ahead with the development of Rapid Exit Taxiways (RETs), which will allow up to two more aircraft movements per hour and significantly reduce consequential flight delays.
“We shared our insights with Miaa with the hope that the impact of the planned construction of RETs on flight operations and schedules will be minimized,” CEB said.
RET is estimated to cost P300 million, and construction will start in June this year.
It is eyed as one of the solutions to avert flight delays.
Miaa Assistant General Manager for Operations Eng. Ricardo Medalla Jr. said the RETs would reduce aircraft time spent on the runway following touchdown, allowing the next aircraft to land within minutes.
Prolonged aircraft occupancy of the runway causes arrival delays, according to Medalla.
“We are also encouraged by transportation and communications department’s commissioning of NATS Services Ltd., a specialist British air traffic and navigation advisory firm, to identify measures to increase hourly takeoffs and landings to 60 from the current limit of 40,” CEB added.
NATS is a consultancy services of British air-traffic management tapped to maximize the runway utilization and ease congestion at the Naia.
The Department of Transportation and Communications awarded the P66-million Naia Runway Optimization project to the joint venture of NATS Services Ltd. and Schema Konsult Inc.
Under the 12-month contract, the group will be tasked to increase hourly air-traffic movements to 60 from 40 by determining the optimal configuration for the airport’s intersecting runways.
The aims of these activities are the optimization of runway capacity by cutting aircraft’s occupancy times, enhancing air-traffic controllers’ (ATC) surveillance capabilities, as well as maximization of available airspace by reducing restrictions and making procedural improvements to tighten intervals between aircraft movements, the Miaa said.
NATS will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the airport’s current airspace, runway and terminal capacities; air traffic and surface operations; runway access points; and ATC training.
Earlier, the Miaa and the Caap helped ease runway congestion by the reactivation of Runway 31, allowing airplanes to take off toward Manila Bay, while at the same time consented to the landing and takeoff on runway 06-24, thus, utilizing both runways at the same time.
General aviation aircraft, consisting of planes for hire, executive jets and the so-called fish-run, were relocated to Sangley Point, Cavite.
“The 40 movements per hour had been in effect before, but the new measure would determine a detailed monitoring and rather than looking at it from an hourly basis, the Miaa-Caap will focus on the 15-minute periods,” Spokesman David de Castro said.
On the other hand, flights unable to meet their original schedule will be retimed to the next block period to guarantee the on-time performance of other flights, he added.