Air traffic needs systems upgrade, new backup to avoid another flight fiasco: CAAP

MANILA - The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said on Wednesday that an upgrade and new backup are needed in the country's air traffic system to avoid a repeat of the New Year's Day flight fiasco.

CAAP said improvements are needed in the Communication, Navigation and Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) to prevent another technical glitch.

Hundreds of flights and thousands of passengers were affected by a technical issue on New Year's Day due to a power supply glitch in the system that monitor's the country's entire airspace.

In a hearing with the Houe Committee on Transportation, CAAP Director General Manuel Antonio Tamayo said they have identified several needed improvements to the CNS/ATM.

“To avoid this kind of circumstance recurring, we recommend the following plans for the CNS/ATM: restore and enhance to its original design before the incident, procurement of the multi-mode fallback system which is considered a systems upgrade,” Tamayo said.

“We are also looking at] the construction of an independent backup for CNS/ATM, and hiring of a third party contractor to provide oversight,” he added.

CAAP earlier said its system was already lagging when it was first used in 2019.

• NAIA operations back to normal following New Year’s Day crisis
• New Year fiasco underscores need for airport upgrades: business group
• CAAP urges gov't to improve air traffic system; says power backup also failed

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