MANILA - The ordeal of the global aviation industry on lack of spare parts is far from over, an airport official said Tuesday.

Ninoy Aquino International Airport general manager Bryan Co said that the supply chain problem depends on the response of international aircraft spare parts and engine manufacturers.

“We’d like to think that this is a temporary thing. If this extends to next year, I think the (local) airlines are pretty strong in forward planning how to deal with contingencies and monitor how they prepare their plans," he said.

Co said aviation authorities met with Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific in early June to discuss action plans on the global shortage of spare parts for aircraft and the long waiting list for plane repairs.

Local airlines account for over 60 percent of the fleet housed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

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“Napansin na natin nagde-degrade ang services ng airlines that’s why we called them to a meeting early June. Pinag-usapan namin na they have to submit an action plan on how you can recover … Ang message lang namin is for them to mount a schedule that they can support in terms of number of aircraft that they have," Co said.

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Local airlines have reduced their commercial flights by 10 to 20 percent in the past few weeks.

The airport management asked carriers to spread their flights to early morning and until late night to recover lost flights and reserve spare aircraft.

“This is an interim reduction habang hinihintay nila itong spare parts na kailangan nila, the engines that they need, and the new aircraft that they’re expecting to arrive. Isa pa dun na nire-require namin sa kanila is to have a spare aircraft to support their schedule. Those are all part of improvement plans,” Co said.

He said that the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) noted the plans seem to work as the airport registered a high "on-time performance" in the past two weeks. On-time performance is an indicator of flight punctuality.

“In terms of trend, napakataas ng increase ng on-time performance for the past two weeks. In fact, yesterday, we ended at 75 percent on-time performance for the whole airport. So malaki na po ang improvement since we called the attention of the airlines to improve," Co said.

RED LIGHTNING ALERT

Aside from aircraft maintenance issues, the airport recently dealt with frequent red lightning alerts.

The alerts are issued to warn passengers of bad weather affecting the airport, therefore, halting flight operations. The red alerts are based on PAGASA’s weather forecast.

“It (red lightning alert) is for the safety of our passengers, crew, and those working in the ramp,” Co said.

NAIA management is working with airlines to convey the red lightning alerts to their customers, he assured.

“Para maintindihan nila (passengers) bakit nangyayari itong (red lightning alerts). Kasi yung impact ng red alert can be felt even after the red alert. Sabihin mo na nag-red alert ng two hours, to 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., eh hanggang midnight mararamdaman 'yan ng pasahero," Co said.

“Kasi kapag may red lightning alert ng two hours, we stop the flight ng two hours. If NAIA is processing around 40 flights per hour, it means 80 flights are on ground plus yung mga dapat na lilipad pa. Therefore, it will take few hours to restore the service. Ang napaka-importante na maimplement ang communication sa pasahero,” he further explained.

Under the Air Passenger Bill of Rights (APBR), passengers whose flights were canceled can reimburse their tickets or rebook their flights. They may also ask their respective airline to endorse them to another airline.

The Department of Transportation said the current APBR version is still enough to protect the rights of air travelers.

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