Beware the long weekend!

June 9 Friday until Monday June 12 will be another long weekend and for those of you who have travel plans by plane and passing through NAIA: BEWARE THE LONG WEEKEND!

Yes, beware because my sources in the aviation sector are having cold sweat and sleepless nights while praying for divine protection from possible power failure or flight disruptions that may confirm suspicions that someone or some group is intentionally giving the MIAA headaches.

The first was on the long weekend from Dec. 30 to Jan. 2 entering the New Year. After that was the weekend of April 21 on the feast of Eid’l Fitr, followed by the May 1 Labor Day weekend. While the suggestion might be a little late, no less than Secretary Jimmy Bautista should ask for additional security in key installations within MIAA and call Meralco for a dedicated standby team to cover all contingencies.

Even Malacañang, particularly the Office of the President, should tap the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency to do background checks, even loyalty checks, on certain residual personnel or officials who are beholden to former officials of the DOTr and attached agencies.

It has become public knowledge that the camp of Secretary Jimmy Bautista is convinced that there is a continuing demolition job on the reputation and competence of the DOTr chief being implemented through attacks on his team members by way of legal action or disruption of services provided by agencies under the DOTr.

Secretary Bautista might be the mild-mannered Clark Kent type, but when public confidence and safety, not to mention convenience, are compromised by such highly suspicious events, it’s time to hunt down the perpetuators from top to bottom and put a stop to them.

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Still on aviation concerns, there has been a steady stream of complaints raised by air travelers regarding serious flight delays, flight cancelations and bad customer service. The biggest complaint is the lack of information and response both from the three local airlines as well as the regulatory agency on top of those companies.

Having a little familiarity with the aviation sector as a former resort developer, tourism stakeholder and journalist, I looked into the situation recently. The problem goes back to the time of COVID lockdowns when the airline industry had extremely reduced flights, when planes could not undergo mandatory servicing either in the US, Canada, UK or Singapore. Because of the uncertainty, airlines and aircraft maintenance facilities pushed back due dates.

As sudden as the groundings happened, the minute COVID restrictions were lifted, air travelers went on their “revenge travels” and piled up at ticketing offices and check-in counters and airports. Eventually, even the low-cost budget fliers flew out, and with the volume, something had to give.

People need to know that in the aviation industry, safety is NON-NEGOTIABLE. Pilots need to undergo annual or bi-annual recurrent training; undergo flight simulator or actual aircraft familiarization in order to have their pilot licenses renewed. Every plane or aircraft needs to be flown to a maintenance facility after flying a fixed number of hours for airworthiness check or maintenance.

Problems began worldwide when a glut, or too many planes, lined up at the handful of facilities I mentioned earlier. So, you are stuck with a fleet of planes that can’t fly commercially until they are serviced, while you have an even bigger number of planes slowly but surely using up their rated flying hours. As expected, they slowly add to the number of planes not allowed to fly without servicing.

Many airlines worldwide have been forced to make do with what they have left, maximize their load in order to afford their operating costs rather than simply stop and go out of business. Not many realize that airlines pay a ton of money for the number of “parking slots” or bays assigned to them at any airport. Every time they load, board, unload or disembark passenger and cargo, everything costs thousands of US$ or its peso equivalent. Every circle and “turn around” they have to make because air traffic is bad, costs thousands in jet fuel, crew and tower service fees.

The problem with this no-win situation is that airlines try to fit in as many flights and load as possible, based on a presumption that everything goes as planned. Unfortunately, things never do, and the consequences catch up with the passengers and the airlines. We are now in the wet/rainy season and June and July is when you get a lot of thunderstorms. Then you have air traffic issues and delays, there are malfunctions on board as well as disruptions on the ground, such power failures or ground handling problems, that further push back schedules and disrupt the schedules, etc.

The nightmares can truly be as simple as a series of unfortunate incidents that multiply into angry mobs at the airport. At the end of the day, air travelers all say, why don’t the airlines simply reduce their flights? Truth be told, announcing flight reductions never works well for airlines or operators. People never think of it as being efficient or logical. The public and investors always attach a negative meaning to it.

Perhaps this is where the Civil Aeronautics Board or the DOTr should step in and issue a memorandum to the affected airlines to reduce their commercial flights, adjust flight schedules in order to relieve the pressure that turns into flight delays or cancelations. There are not enough aircraft available, too many passengers, too many groups pressuring airlines to maintain flights to different provinces, etc. The CAB and DOTr need to exercise their regulatory power before disasters happen and lives are lost. Pruning and scarcity often result in correct growth and strength.

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