Miaa denies congestion at Naia, cites queueing due to Aquino departure

The Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa) has denied the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) experienced runway congestion on Thursday.

“Naia had a quasi-emergency closure of runways due to President Aquino’s departure to Bacolod on Thursday. This lasted for 13 minutes from 10:36 a.m. to 10:49 a.m.,” Miaa said in a statement sent to INQUIRER.net on Friday.

On Thursday, INQUIRER.net reported a Manila-bound Cebu Pacific Air flight diverted to Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark, Pampanga, due to congestion at Naia.

READ: Manila-bound plane diverted to Clark due to congestion at Naia

One of the passengers on the flight said the plane circled the Manila airport for about 40 minutes.

The passenger quoted one of the plane’s flight attendants as saying they could not land at Naia due to the many arrivals and departures.

The aircraft’s captain, she said, announced that for safety reasons the flight had to be diverted to Clark as they were nearing the safety fuel limit and had to refuel.

Miaa clarified airport congestion had nothing to do with the flight diversion.

“Cebu Pacific Flight 5J 384 opted to divert to Clark rather than queue due to low fuel. It did not divert its route because of air traffic congestion per se,” Miaa said. RC