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The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) shortened its corrective maintenance activity at the Philippine Air Traffic Management Center (ATMC), which will affect flights nationwide on May 17, to just two hours instead of six
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The corrective maintenance activity will now be conducted from 2:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. instead of 12:00 midnight to 6:00 a.m. as earlier announced
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Once the maintenance activity is completed, operations at the ATMC will resume as normal and will allow CAAP-ATMC “to serve the flying public better and ensure continued flight safety”
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) shortens maintenance works at the Philippine Air Traffic Management Center (ATMC) on May 17 to just two hours from the original six, significantly cutting downtime for Philippine airspace.
The maintenance activity will affect flights at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Clark International Airport, and Mactan-Cebu International Airport, and several flights at the other 42 CAAP commercially operated airports.
In an advisory on May 5, CAAP said based on careful process reviews and simulations, the corrective maintenance activity at the Philippine Air Traffic Management Center (ATMC) will now be conducted from 2:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. instead of 12:00 midnight to 6:00 a.m. as earlier announced. The first part of the maintenance activity was last March 3, also from 2:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m.
As a result of coordination with stakeholders, CAAP said it has canceled the initial Notice to Airmen (NOTAM), and issued NOTAM B1553/23 as of May 5.
The maintenance work is necessary to repair the automatic voltage regulator (AVR), replace the uninterruptible power supply (UPS), and upgrade the air traffic management system (ATMS) A/B power supply, CAAP earlier said.
The ATMC houses the communications, navigations, surveillance/air traffic management (CNS/ATM) system, which manages and supervises the air traffic activities within the Philippine Flight Information Region (FIR).
It may be recalled that on January 1, the power supply of CAAP’s CNS/ATM system broke down and resulted in the cancellation of hundreds of flights in the country. CAAP director general Manuel Antonio Tamayo earlier said the CNS/ATM system “at this point in time is still state of the art and a gold standard as far as air traffic control is concerned” but it needs upgrade on the software and hardware.
The ATMS power supply upgrade will involve the installation of a bypass panel to provide seamless ATMS operation and the reconfiguration of the existing distribution panel to segregate ATM system A (voice) and ATM system B (data), resulting with the UPS and AVR serving as each other’s backup in case the other power supply encounters a problem.
An AVR functions as a protection against surges as it regulates the voltage delivered to devices and a UPS ensures equipment has uninterruptible power supply.
In order to further enhance the country’s ATMS and strengthen partnership with neighboring counterparts, CAAP hosted a two-day collaboration activity with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) last May 3-4, 2023, where both authorities delved into technical topics related to the upcoming maintenance activities, covering contingency plans, best practices, and recommendations to ensure a seamless process in air traffic management.
CAAP said the CAAS team’s keen observations and recommendations during their visit to the Philippine ATMC played a pivotal role in identifying areas for improvement that would enhance its safety and efficiency.
