Sunday, October 20, 2013

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines informs airlines of Manila radar outage

The  Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has issued a notice-to-airmen (NOTAM), saying the Manila radar would be out of service for maintenance from October 21 to 26.

There would be a continuous outage of the radar service from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on October 24, the NOTAM said.

During this period, all landing and takeoff procedures would be done through “conventional” means, using the celestial navigation called STAR, and Standard Instrument Departure.

To limit congestion, air traffic controllers would limit the number of aircraft under its control to 11 arrivals and 11 departures per hour.

“International flight schedules will be the first priority for the arrival and departure sequence,” the Caap said.

To give more airspace within the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Aerodrome, the Caap said general-aviation flights will not be allowed.

“Departure flights will be subject to Air Traffic Flow Management release, and departure,” the Caap added. Flights will be advised of their estimated departure clearance time while waiting for clearance on the ground.

To meet the flight-separation requirement, air traffic controllers said five to seven minutes of separation must be applied between flights while in the holding patterns, since possible complications may arise during bad weather condition, unexpected  flight delays, or during emergencies.

The Caap told the Airline Operators Council (AOC) that it would be prudent to advise their head offices to assign sufficient extra fuel for Manila-bound flights affected by the radar outage schedule to avoid flight diversions.

The chairman of the AOC, Herr Obusan, the local manager of Japan Airlines (JAL), said he had recommended to Jal to add at least one hour extra hour of fuel when leaving Narita, Osaka, for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. 



http://www.businessmirror.com.ph

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