MANILA – Transportation secretary Arthur Tugade said Wednesday that Xiamen Air should pay not only for the actual damages caused when its plane skidded off the runway at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport but also for the lost opportunities.
During the hearing of the Senate committee on public services, Tugade said the investigation on the incident was still ongoing.
“CAAP (Civil Aviation Administration of the Philippines) is on top of this along with Xiamen Air,” he said.
He said he was told the Xiamen and CAAP had agreed that the former will bear the costs of aircraft handling and runway recovery caused by the aircraft mishap.
“Ang amin hong posisyon hindi lang ang danyos na aktuwal, kailangan kagaya po ng sabi ni Madam chair(Senator Grace Poe) isama ang lost opportunities,” said Tugade.
He said there will be a study to determine the total cost that will be paid by the airline company.
Earlier in the hearing, Tugade apologized for the inconveniences caused by the Aug. 16 incident.
He, however, maintained that government authorities did everything to address the chaos triggered by the airport closure, saying that the 36 hours it took to reopen the runway, though long, was still a “reasonable time.”
Xiamen Air flight MF8667 skidded off Runway 06/24 around 11 p.m. on Aug. 16 supposedly due to rain. The incident inconvenienced tens of thousands of airline passengers after NAIA’s international runway was closed for nearly 36 hours.
Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Ed Monreal earlier said that Xiamen Air may have to pay at least P15 million to cover equipment and manpower costs incurred in clearing the airline’s plane from the NAIA runway. (GMA News)
