Thousands stranded on New Year’s Day as power outage hits Manila airport – Saudi Gazette

Thousands stranded on New Year’s Day as power outage hits Manila airport – Saudi Gazette

MANILA — Chaos erupted on New Year's Day in the Philippines after a severe power outage temporarily impacted air traffic control at the country's largest airport, disrupting nearly 300 flights and leaving tens of thousands of travelers stranded in the Southeast Asian hub.

Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL) is the main gateway for travelers to the Philippines, serving the capital Manila and surrounding region.

Technical issues were first detected on Sunday morning, the airport operator, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), said in a statement.

A total of 282 flights were either delayed, canceled or diverted to other regional airports while around 56,000 passengers were affected as of 4 p.m. local time on New Year's Day, it added. It was unclear how many overflights were affected, reported Reuters.

In a press conference held on the evening of Sunday, January 1, Philippine Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista apologized for the inconvenience caused to passengers and said that the airport's central air traffic control system had suffered from a severe power outage. Although there was a back-up power supply, it had failed to supply enough power, he added.

"This was an air traffic management system issue," Bautista said. "If you will compare (our airport) with Singapore's, for