“Clark’s regular flights remained smooth and unaffected by the diverted flights,” said Clark International Airport Corp. (CAIAC) president-CEO Emigdio Tanjuatco III.
The NAIA runway was opened to aircraft at about 10:45 p.m. Monday, but eight NAIA-bound aircraft were still here yesterday morning for refueling, said CIAC spokesman Rendy Isip.
Various foreign and local carriers started arriving at Clark Airport at about 9 a.m. Monday after Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) in Manila issued a Notice to Airmen (Notam) to the CAAP Clark Tower on the diversion of flights to pave the way for the repair of a cracked portion of NAIA runway.
Isip said “Several air carriers waited for the repair of the NAIA runway while others had allowed their passengers to disembark at Clark and be transported by bus to Manila.”
Isip said Tanjuatco III personally handled the situation at the airport which hosts several international and domestic flights of its own.
Tanjuatco stressed that normal operations of the Clark airport were not disrupted by the flight diversions from NAIA.
“All regular flights were not affected, no cancellation and delay,” he said. Tanjuatco said “we understand the predicament of the passengers, we did our best to provide them all they needed.”
The diverted flights were those of Airphil, Philippine Airlines, AirAsia Zest, Cebu Pacific, Air Juan, Asian Aerospace, Emirates, Saudia Airlines, Etihad, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airline, and Oman Air.
The Clark airport has two parallel runways each 3.2 kilometers long and could accommodate the world’s largest aircraft.
