Airport operations in the country back to normal after 2-hour airspace shutdown

The operations of airports throughout the country went back to normal after the two-hour airspace shutdown on Wednesday, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said.

In an Unang Balita report on Wednesday, the CAAP said the shutdown was held from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. for the replacement of the airspace management system's uninterruptible power supply.

In a statement, the CAAP said the scheduled corrective maintenance undertaken at the Air Traffic Management Center (ATMC) was accomplished in just over an hour, or from 2 a.m. to 3:13 a.m.

"Personnel manning the Communications Navigation Surveillance Systems (CNSS) and Air Navigation Service (ANS) reported normal operations at the ATMC," it said.

This was to prevent possible power supply breakdowns in the future, after such incident resulted in the shutdown of Philippine airspace on New Year’s Day.

No flights were affected as CAAP received no reports from the Manila International Airport Authority.

"The work also did not affect the Philippine airspace. Air traffic controllers reported no flight disruptions during the maintenance operation," the CAAP said.

Monitoring and finetuning of the CNSS and ANS are continuously being undertaken to ensure the unimpeded operations of airports throughout the country.

Before the airspace shutdown, passengers were advised to coordinate with airline companies to determine whether changes were made regarding their scheduled flights on Wednesday.

The airspace shutdown was held concurrently with runway maintenance being conducted at the airports. —Jamil Santos/ VAL/RSJ, GMA Integrated News