Affected by the NAIA ‘tech glitch’
TACLOBAN CITY-The operations at the Daniel Z. Romualdez(DZR) Airport has returned to normalcy on Monday (Jan.2) a day after thousands of passengers failed to board with their flights on Sunday(Jan.1) due to what the Civil Aviation Authorities of the Philippines(CAAP) said due to ‘computer glitch’ and power outage.
Passengers who were stranded Sunday from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport(NAIA)arrived at the DZR Airport at around 5 am Monday(Jan. 2).
One of those stranded passengers was Major Francis Agno, the former information officer of the 8th Infantry Division, who was supposed to visit his parents in Samar.
Agno, now assigned at their national headquarters, said that he was forced to cancel his visit due to the incident.
“I just asked the Cebu Pacific company for a refund. I will just visit my parents in Samar next time,” he said.
“The operations at the DZR Airport is now back to normal with the passengers were able to board according with their flight schedules,” a personnel from CAAP, who declined to be named being not authorized, said.
The CAAP personnel also said that many of the stranded passengers had their flights rebooked by the airline companies.
“Many of them chose to stay at the airport while there were others who chose to return home or stayed in a hotel for their next flights,” he said.
Accordingly, the incident on Sunday resulted in the non-arrival of 14 flights of which six flights were from Cebu Airport with the rest coming from NAIA.
Both offices of the Philippine Airline and Cebu Pacific at the DZR Airport declined to provide the number of affected passengers, saying they need clearance from their legal offices first.
But passengers from Manila uses Air Buses which could accommodate 180 passengers while 78 passengers could be accommodated for smaller planes used for Cebu- Tacloban flights.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
