MANILA – Xiamen Air on late Aug. 22 vowed to bear the costs for aircraft handling and runway recovery caused by the aircraft mishap last week which resulted in dozens of flight delays and cancellations.
“After occurrence of runway excursion at Manila Airport, Xiamen Airlines contacted Manila Airport immediately and made commitment to bear costs for aircraft handling and runway recovering caused by the event,” Xiamen Air said in a statement.
“Xiamen Airlines will confirm the costs with Manila Airport as planned,” it added.
The airline company also promised to cooperate in the investigation of the incident, noting that a joint investigation team consists of personnel from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines and the Civil Aviation Administration of China has already been formed.
Xiamen Air also said that as of Wednesday afternoon, more than 55,000 meals and water had been distributed to affected passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
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 as NAIA’s international runway was closed for nearly 36 hours.
Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Ed Monreal has 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.
“Initial pa lang ’yan,” Monreal told GMA News Online. “Let’s wait for the full report on the expenses.”
He said MIAA spent about P4 million for the crane it used to lift the Boeing 737 aircraft off the NAIA’s runway 06/24.
The airport authority is also looking at holding the airline accountable for lost revenue from landing and take-off fees due to the runway closure.
In an earlier interview on ANC, Monreal said that Xiamen Air may face a heftier bill once the losses have been fully tallied.
“Right now, there’s only two aspects that we … just computed. I think in the range of P15M but there’s still a lot of cost,” he said. “They said they will cooperate … We’re still … to compute.”
Monreal earlier announced that the operations at the airport had gone back to normal. (GMA News)
