Can we manage well?

The series of power failures at NAIA T3 is showing a lack of capability for management. Is it incompetence or is it the system that makes managing the terminal unnecessarily difficult?

The suspension of the MIAA general manager by the Ombudsman because some employees anonymously protested being reassigned is an indication of something wrong in the system.

A manager should be able to assign and reassign workers, or how can we hold him accountable for failures? Yet, the Ombudsman gave due course to an accusation of grave abuse of authority. That will make future managers walk on eggshells in dealing with employees, specially those with political backers.

So, there is a strong push for the government to consider an unsolicited proposal from a group of conglomerates to run the airport. There is urgency because NAIA is now serving 42 million passengers a year, way above its design capacity of 30 million.

The proposal of the Manila International Airport Consortium (MIAC) will scale up the passenger capacity of NAIA to 62.5 million a year. It offered to invest P210 billion to make that happen.

The group’s earlier unsolicited proposal during the last administration didn’t prosper. That was five years ago, the amount of time San Miguel Corp. is promising to deliver a new airport with four parallel runways built from scratch.

We have been talking about modernizing NAIA for over 30 years now. JICA has wasted money on studies on how to fix NAIA or build an entirely new one. Today, we are still talking.

In our Viber group of mostly economists, there is still an ongoing debate on whether it is better to go the unsolicited route, which MIAC’s proposal is, or a solicited one. I am sure they are talking about the same thing at NEDA and DOF, which is why nothing is happening. Talk is not cheap. While we keep talking, Vietnam is building some 30 airports.

The other debate is whether our airports should be run by the government or the private sector. It was pointed out that all airports in the region are government-run and are efficient. In our case, the only airport we can be proud of is Mactan Cebu International. Its newest terminal was built by the private consortium of Megawide and GMR, an Indian airport management company. The old terminal in Mactan was also rehabilitated and looks better than Terminal 3, the newest at NAIA.

The secret of Mactan Cebu is simple: It is professionally run. GMR is running airports in India and elsewhere. They sent here an experienced airport manager, Andrew Harrisson, and that made a big difference. NAIA is being run by well-connected retired Air Force generals or airline station managers with absolutely no experience in running airports. MIAC promises to bring in internationally experienced professional airport managers.

From airports to airlines… We have a lot to learn from the world. I have not had a single flight on CebuPacific, even one they sponsored, that had not experienced schedule glitches on the return flight. Understandably, CebuPac and PAL lack aircraft but they are trying to run a full post pandemic schedule. That explains the mess.

My daughter decided to bring her family home this week to take advantage of the school break (she and her husband are public school teachers). They planned their trip early enough and thought they would all leave for Manila on PR103 June 11. Then they got a notice they were moved to June 12 and one of my grandsons was even reassigned to a June 15 departure from LAX.

My daughter got edgy because they have plans set on a tight schedule. I took pity and messaged my long-time colleague from broadcast days and now PAL spokesperson, Cielo Villaluna. Cielo did her best to get them as close to the original departure date and succeeded. Then when my daughter went to her assigned seat, there was a “do not occupy” notice because it was damaged. She ended up at the back row, middle seat in between two men when she wanted to be next to her son.

The man seated next to her found out the morning of the flight that they bumped off his 17-year-old son to the 15th. Because he was just 17, they had to scramble to get a notarized letter that his son can travel alone. Mid-flight, the man got a text message his son was bumped off again, to the 22nd or 10 days after the original schedule. They bought him another ticket on All Nippon Air. Hopefully, PAL returns their money.

The mess at LAX happened because PAL changed the plane for the flight from a Boeing 777 with 370 seats to an Airbus 350 with 295 seats.

I am sure there is a valid reason for the change in aircraft, technical and safety. But PAL employees should make the shift as painless as possible. Don’t even talk of their so-called customer hotline where the wait is at least 45 minutes to an hour to talk to someone and only to be cut off. PAL’s customer experience in this crisis is shitty.

I didn’t like to bother a friend on a Saturday evening, but I was desperate. So, thank you Cielo for the great response. But PAL is far from its ambition to be a five-star airline.

I blame the Civil Aeronautics Board for doing nothing, even if PAL and CebuPac have been messing around with passengers for a while. There is obviously regulatory capture or CAB officials are simply lazy and/or incompetent. There should be a penalty for each change in schedule because time is money too for the passengers.

Personally, I avoid PAL if I can. On our last US trip, we took ANA. One stopover at Narita, and we were off with fantastic cabin service and excellent Japanese food.

My daughter ignored my advice because children always think they know better… until they don’t. She thought nonstop to Manila is more convenient… until it wasn’t. And PAL is more expensive too than ANA, at least when we took it.

So, from airport to airline management, I am sure kaya yan ng Pinoy. Ayaw lang kayanin.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco