By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Hundreds of Manila-bound passengers were stranded at the Bacolod-Silay Airport after a glitch at the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on New Year’s Day.

Roel Aranzado, manager of Bacolod-Silay International Airport, said three outbound and two inbound flights were affected.

The affected outbound flights were AirAsia flight Z2 604, Philippine Airlines flight PR 2132, and Cebu Pacific 5J 486, which had a total of 566 passengers.

Two Bacolod-bound flights — Cebu Pacific flights 5J 483 and 5J 477 — were also hit by the traffic glitch affecting 400 passengers.

All affected flight schedules were rebooked and processed, and airline companies provided food and snacks to the stranded passengers, he said.

The airport’s security and the Philippine National Police’s Aviation Security Group assisted in implementing crowd control.

A total of 282 flights were delayed, canceled or diverted at NAIA last Sunday, January 1, affecting at least 56,000 passengers.

Meanwhile, Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime Bautista has issued an apology and explained that the ATC breakdown was due to a power outage.

The air navigation system is used by the aviation authorities to monitor the planes’ location and to man the traffic for those entering and leaving the country’s airspace, the DOTr said.

Bautista also said the existing facility is already outdated and an upgrade is urgently needed.

Flights were partially restored by Sunday afternoon./DGB, WDJ