Airlines hit NAIA equipment woes

International airlines operating at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) decried the serious equipment breakdown at the NAIA air control tower particularly the Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunications Network (AFTN) communications system under the responsibility of the Air Transportation Office (ATO).

Leoncio Dakila "Onie" Nakpil II, Manila Airline Operators Council (AOC) chairman, said the breakdown of the ATO’s AFTN has been causing delays of 10 to 15 minutes in international flights, mostly departures.

Nakpil said that aside from the delays, which have gravely affected operations, they are concerned that the lack of an AFTN system would affect the safety of flights going in and out of the NAIA runway.

"Of course, it’s a flight safety concern also. Because when there is a delay in the coursing of important flight information, accidents can happen," Nakpil told reporters in an interview yesterday.

Manila is currently playing host to the 23rd SEA Games. The air traffic peak season is approaching with the month of December.

The ATO’s AFTN system at the NAIA, mainly a more than 20-year-old teletype machine that has been phased out at international airports of other countries, had conked out last Nov. 19.

Last Nov. 22, the ATO had admitted the problem in the AFTN, through a NOTAM (notice to airmen), indicating the that the AFTN "outage."

Currently, ATO personnel have to send flight plans and other flight information through facsimile to either the Hong Kong or Singapore air control towers.

From there, they have to make a request for either of the two stations to forward or relay it to all the air stations all over the world.

The AFTN is basically a global communication system wherein flight information of all international flights going in and out of an international airport is sent to all air stations or air control towers of all international airports around the world.

It is vital in that everyone is informed of the altitude assignments of a particular flight to prevent air collisions and even "near-misses."

Apart from flight plans, included in the flight information sent through the AFTN are weather updates, the different NOTAMs of air control towers, pilot reports and other important and relevant information.

Aircraft of an international flight that pass each other in mid-air with only a distance of five miles is classified as a "near-miss,"NAIA insiders told reporters yesterday.

In a latter to ATO chief Assistant Secretary Nilo Jatico last Nov. 25, Nakpil called the attention of the agency to the operational problems they were suffering as a result of the AFTN breakdown.

"It has come to our attention that the ATC AFTN communications suffered serious equipment breakdown and is expected to require long period for its restoration. Since Nov. 22, airlines have been anxiously monitoring developments and we are much concerned about the grave inconvenience and poor service that ATC is providing us at the moment," Nakpil, who is also the chairman of the recently formed AOC-Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), told Jatico in his letter.

"We have already received complaints from our respective Head Offices/Operations Departments who are sharing the burden of additional workload and coordination efforts consequent to this problem. Also we are heavily handicapped when dealing with very important information such as weather data, flight position reports, PIREPs (pilot’s reports), and other operational messages. AOC believes that it is not fair nor proper for our member airlines to suffer this prolonged disservice, not to mention the danger of compromising Flight Safety," Nakpil further stressed.

International airlines pay the ATO several fees for navigational and other services that include the AFTN service.

The ATO, on the other hand, generates revenues for the national government from the collection of these fees which last year reached to as much as P1.3 billion.

For his part, Jatico told The Star in an interview yesterday that they were now repairing the AFTN with the help of experts from China.

The AFTN, he said, may be repaired within the week.

Jatico said they have also started the process of procuring a brand new AFTN system with the Department of Budget and Management’s nod to start to process.

Jatico said that a brand new AFTN system costs P180 million.