NAIA: Power interruption caused by terminal's substation

MANILA (UPDATE)— Cebu Pacific on Saturday said it was canceling some of its flights following the power outage at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3.

While the "situation begins to normalize," Cebu Pacific announced Saturday morning that the following flights were canceled September 17.

• 5J 573/574 Manila-Cebu-Manila
• 5J 919/920 Manila-Caticlan-Manila
• 5J 272/273 Manila-Hong Kong-Manila
• 5J 279/280 Manila-Bali-Manila

A total of 16 international and 15 domestic flights, meanwhile, were affected by the power interruption, NAIA said in a statement.

DOMESTIC FLIGHTS

Departure

• 5J 951 Manila-Davao
• 5J 473 Manila-Bacolod
• 5J 381 Manila-Cagayan
• 5J 635 Manila-Puerto Princesa
• 5J 961 Manila-Davao
• 5J 991 Manila-General Santos
• 5J 451 Manila-Iloilo
• 5J 551 Manila-Cebu
• 5J 651 Manila-Tacloban
• 5J 357 Manila-Roxas
• 5J 481 Manila-Bacolod
• 5J 851 Manila-Zamboanga

Arrival

• 5J 2506 Cebu-Manila
• 5J 3966 Davao-Manila
• TK 265 Cebu-Manila

INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS

Departure

• EK 335 Manila-Dubai
• QR 929 Manila-Doha
• Z2 942 Manila-Kuala Lumpur
• TK 265 Manila-Istanbul
• 5J 929 Manila-Bangkok
• 5J 813 Manila-Singapore
• SQ 915 Manila-Singapore
• EK 337 Manila-Dubai
• 5J 5038 Manila-Nagoya

Arrival

• 5J 827 Osaka-Manila
• Z2 232 Denpasar-Manila
• 5J 502 Kuala Lumpur-Manila
• 5J 804 Singapore-Manila
• SQ 918 Singapore-Manila
• EK 336 Dubai-Manila

"Affected passengers on the above flights have been rebooked to the next available flights within the next 24 hours, and have been informed of their new flight schedule," the airline said in a statement.

Coordination with Meralco normalized the power supply of portions of NAIA Terminal 3.

WHAT HAPPENED

NAIA said power in the terminal has been restored around 6 a.m. The power outage happened around 11 p.m. on Friday night.

"The power outage disrupted airport operations as the airlines had to resort to manual check-in and loading of baggage while processing of passengers at immigration took longer than usual," the statement read.

Transportation Sec. Jaime Bautista, in a phone interview, said he rushed to NAIA Terminal 3 early Saturday as soon as he received the report from the airport's general manager Cesar Chiong.

Initial reports received by Bautista indicated that the power trip out triggered the airport generator to activate but its computer system slowed down due to its system's technical requirements.

However, some areas are still being inspected by airport engineers because of the low voltage disabling some computers at the immigration counters.

The problem was traced later on to the substation of NAIA Terminal 3, following a joint probe conducted by the Manila International Airport Authority and Meralco. Airline authorities did not elaborate.

Bautista apologized to the affected passengers and assured the public that authorities are monitoring the situation.

—With a report by Raoul Esperas

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