BUSINESS and tourism groups on Monday said they are disappointed over the New Year’s Day cancellation of hundreds of flights which has affected thousands of passengers.
Some said they fear the flight mess has damaged the image of the Philippines as a tourism destination, while others said they hope that any negativity will be short-lived.
The Tourism Congress of the Philippines said the closure of the Philippines’ airspace and cancelation of nearly 300 flights on New Year’s day has raised a lot of questions for travelers.
“What happened yesterday (Sunday) has raised some questions for travelers and the tourism industry. Is it going to happen again? How often will it happen if it continues to be a problem? What we also saw is that the airport, the airlines, and even us in tourism were not ready,” said group president Jojo Clemente yesterday.
He said the group received many calls and emails from affected passengers.
“Nobody knew what to do, or how to get a flight in or out of the Philippines,” he said, adding that he was disappointed with the reason behind the fiasco.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said the loss of power in the system was due to a problem in the system’s electrical network. CAAP said the uninterruptible power supply (UPS), which is to be used as backup power supply, also failed.
Tycoon Manuel Pangilinan of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. said his flight from Japan was also affected.
“We’re told radar and navigation facilities at NAIA down. I was on my way home from Tokyo – 3 hours into the flight, but had to return to Haneda (sic),” Pangilinan posted on Twitter.
He said they had to endure “6 hours of useless flying” and that “losses to tourism and business are horrendous.”
For the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the damage has already been done to the Philippines’ image.
“It’s a wakeup call to improve our nation’s airport because a recent survey ranked us quite low. I hope backup and disaster recovery systems can be installed,” said PCCI president George Barcelon.
Businessman Joey Concepcion said the government needs to look at privatizing NAIA again.
Concepcion, who worked together with a “super consortium” of some of the country’s largest conglomerates years ago to privatize NAIA, said the proposal should be revisited in light of the New Year’s Day flight fiasco.
“NAIA is strategically located and any improvements made here will redound to so many benefits to the country. I believed then, as I do now, that the private sector can contribute so much if allowed to participate,” he said.
The Marcos Administration recently said it will revive plans to privatize NAIA. (ABS-CBN News)
