The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has announced that the entire Philippine airspace will be shut down for six hours on May 17 to facilitate maintenance activities aimed at preventing further power outages in the country's airports.
The shutdown will begin shortly after midnight and end at 6 a.m., during which no flights will operate across the country.
"For six hours, wala talagang activity sa ating airspace [there will be no activity in our airspace]," MIAA Senior Assistant General Manager Bryan Co said.
"CAAP is saying it could happen na mas maiksi, pwedeng shorter. Pero as far as planning is concerned, we're planning six hours," he added.
The upgrade will involve repairing the automatic voltage regulator and replacing the uninterruptible power supply.
CAAP has stated that the downtime could be shorter, but planning has been made for six hours.
This maintenance work comes after technical issues at Ninoy Aquino International Airport on New Year's Day and a power outage on May 1 that disrupted airport operations.
The scheduled maintenance will mainly impact NAIA, Clark International Airport, Mactan-Cebu International Airport, and several flights at the other 42 CAAP commercially operated airports.
A separate but shorter maintenance activity will take place on May 3 from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m.
Airlines and airport authorities have already been informed and a meeting is scheduled for Wednesday to discuss possible adjustments to flight schedules.
