The main gateway to the Philippines remained on reduced operations on Monday after a New Year’s power outage that jolted its air traffic control, leaving officials scrambling to resume full service after more than 300 flights were disrupted.
Cesar Cheong, general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority, said the aging Ninoy Aquino International Airport was handling a maximum of 15 arrivals per hour on Monday, compared to 20 during normal operations.
The outage was the result of an unprecedented failure of both the primary and secondary power supplies, he said.
“It will take about 72 hours for the airlines to normalize their operations,” Cheong told ANC news channel.
On Sunday, 361 flights were either delayed, canceled or diverted to other regional airports, affecting about 65,000 passengers, while several others were forced to re-route to avoid Philippine airspace. .