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The Manila International Airport Authority will conduct a full electrical audit of Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 following a power interruption on the early morning of May 1 that delayed and cancelled numerous flights
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The audit will allow MIAA to determine which critical equipment and services will need budgeting and subsequent procurement
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MIAA and Meralco will also conduct a joint technical assessment with assistance from an independent third-party expert to determine the cause of the power interruption
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The power outage delayed some flights and cancelled 24 round-trip domestic flights of Cebu Pacific, and affected about 9,000 passengers
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Power was restored before 9am on the same day
A Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 full electrical audit will be conducted by the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) following a power outage on the early morning of May 1 that delayed and cancelled numerous flights.
Transport Secretary Jaime Bautista, in a press briefing on May 1, said this was the recommendation during a meeting with electric power distribution company Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
RELATED READ: NAIA Terminal 3 power outage delays numerous flights
The power interruption began at 1:05 a.m. MIAA immediately turned on generator sets (gensets) to partially supply power to the check-in system, immigration system, final security x-ray, aerobridges, arrival baggage carousel, elevators, escalators, walkalators, airconditioning, and lights of the terminal.
The gensets, however, could only support the power requirement in critical areas of Terminal 3, the reason why some areas had no air conditioning.
Meralco arrived 15 minutes after the power interruption began and fully restored electricity almost eight hours later at 8:46 a.m.
Bautista said the power outage delayed flights and cancelled 24 round-trip domestic flights of Cebu Pacific, which currently operates majority of its flights at Terminal 3. No international flights were cancelled although some were delayed.
MIAA general manager Cesar Chiong said the power outage affected about 9,000 passengers, who were provided food and water by the airport authority.
As of 1:00 p.m., Chiong said Terminal 3 was already able to operate 247 flights. The terminal usually handles 750 to 760 flights a day.
The runway will not close on the evening of May 1 to allow airlines to recover, MIAA said.
The full electrical audit will allow MIAA to determine which critical equipment and services will need budgeting and subsequent procurement.
MIAA and Meralco will also conduct a joint technical assessment with assistance from an independent third-party expert to determine the cause of the power interruption.
In addition, DOTr will coordinate with the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, the primary intelligence gathering and analysis arm of the government, to investigate possible security issues.
Bautista said “it’s very important” to conduct a full electrical audit of Terminal 3, which power requirement has increased over the years with the growth in the number of flights, concessionaires inside the terminal, and equipment such air-conditioning units. Considering the age of Terminals 1 and 2, Bautista said they may also conduct full electrical audits for the two terminals.
He said a full electrical audit was conducted in 2017 but not all recommendations were implemented.
Bautista said they will have to procure the contract for the audit, which could take take 60-90 days. He noted the audit will not disrupt operations at the terminal.
“Fault current” as the culprit
Meralco representative engineer Noel Espiritu said initial inspection showed a “fault current”, or an abnormal electric current, caused the power interruption and triggered a circuit breaker of Terminal 3. It also damaged a “component” of Meralco in Terminal 3 but this was replaced immediately.
Espiritu said they have yet to determine what caused the fault current.
Bautista, meanwhile, noted that what happened on May 1 is different from the power outage at NAIA Terminal 3 in September last year and the January 1, 2023 power outage that caused a technical glitch of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines’ air traffic control system.
Aside from the full electrical audit, MIAA said they will either procure or lease more gensets to supply major parts of the terminal such as baggage handling and air-conditioning. A rehabilitation of the terminal is also ongoing.
DOTr will soon bid out NAIA operations and maintenance to a private concessionaire. The transport department will also review the P100-billion unsolicited proposal to develop NAIA by a new group, the Manila International Airport Consortium.
RELATED READ: New consortium proposes P100B upgrade of NAIA
