THE country’s air traffic management system is not obsolete, but needs further upgrades to prevent another technical glitch which shutdown Philippine airspace on New Year’s Day, according to an official of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).
“‘Yang ating equipment na ‘yan kung tawagin nga ay nasa ‘mid-life’… hindi pa naman po completely obsolete though we need upgrades to make sure na siya po ay tutugon sa lahat ng pangangailangan sa ngayon,” CAAP deputy director general Edgardo Diaz said during a public briefing on Tuesday.
Hundreds of flights and thousands of passengers were affected by a power outage at the Philippine Air Traffic Management Center (ATMC) on Sunday, Jan. 1.
In particular, officials said that one of the uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) failed on Sunday morning, and troubleshooting activities had to be done.
Once the system was reconnected to the power supply, however, warnings were released at around lunch time due to over voltage as 380 volts were coming in instead of 220 volts. This then affected the very small aperture terminal (VSAT), which also had to be addressed.
CAAP director general Manuel Tamayo earlier said the system is “quite old.”
In a news release on Monday, the CAAP also said “the system is already behind when it was first used in 2019 and has made recommendations to the President on improving the country’s air traffic management system.”
Nevertheless, Diaz said that the performance of the system was good.
“Maganda pa po ang performance niyan. Ang nangyari lang po ay nawalan tayo ng power kaya po bumagsak ang kanyang operation pero nung manumbalik na po ang power naibalik natin siya sa tamang takbo po niya,” the CAAP official said.
He added that the operation in the whole country is returning to normal.
As to how much will be needed for upgrades, Diaz said assessments are ongoing with technical teams and engineers.
Transport officials have said that billions of pesos of upgrades are needed to prevent another technical issue from happening again. (GMA Integrated News)
