Clueless?

Palace officials, mainly Transportation Secretary Art Tugade, should stop issuing daily public apologies on the mayhem that hit old Terminal 1 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and instead look for solutions to prevent a similar disaster.

Their first move should be to assess the performance of the airport managers.

In the attempt to make it appear that he was in control, the head of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) only exposed he was a babe in the woods, for instance.

MIAA general manager Ed Monreal at a press briefing last Sunday (that was more about managing an image crisis) cited 681 “recovery flights” which he said airline firms deployed as part of efforts to put the situation back to normal at the NAIA.

A Xiamen Air aircraft had crash-landed near midnight last Thursday, which placed the airport on a standstill in the following two days for the removal of debris and the airplane itself from the runway.

Monreal said it should be Xiamen Air’s responsibility to remove its aircraft. The Chinese airline was getting most of the diversionary barbs being thrown by the MIAA official.

Chaos ensued when airport operations reopened. Monreal’s effort was to pin the blame on the airline firms and the Xiamen Air pilot and crew while cushioning the impact of the crisis on him and the MIAA.

For stranded passengers, however, what only mattered was that everything was in shambles at the NAIA and Monreal had failed to restore order even five days after the Xiamen aircraft disrupted airport operations.

The recovery flights that Monreal boasted were part of efforts to restore normal flight schedules were the same ones he blamed for the problem worsening to a crisis the next day when he held another media briefing.

Frantic passengers who were mostly overseas Filipino workers had already packed the airport by then.

The messed-up airline schedules worried Filipino expatriates who had schedules to keep in their contracts which made them camp out at the NAIA to catch the first flight out of the country.

Monreal on Monday accused airlines of deploying recovery flights which he said were not coordinated with the MIAA. He admitted, nonetheless, that the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) was informed on most of these flights.

It was incredible then that Monreal admitted before media and on national television that the CAAP and the MIAA were not exchanging notes during the critical period when stranded passengers were crying that they were left to fend for themselves.

He blamed 61 uncoordinated flights last Monday to have worsened congestion after the resumption of NAIA operations that resulted in a chain reaction of flight delays.

Monreal claimed that the MIAA only knew when they (aircraft on recovery flights) were approaching which he blamed for “congestion in terms of parking space.”

“We’re hoping that maybe in a day, we’ll be able to go back to normal operations; airlines are mounting recovery flights, flights that are scheduled as well as departing,” he said.

“I told the airlines not to leave MIAA in the equation. If they land here and they are not on our list, of course, we get surprised. I hope that does not happen again,” Monreal added.

Monreal should have issued the statement in front of the thousands of Filipinos who had to pathetically camp out at the airport while waiting for action from the MIAA and airline managers.

The absence of coordination between the MIAA and the CAAP was the reason for the NAIA operations blunder.

As a result of improved relations between China and the Philippines after President Rodrigo Duterte unveiled his independent foreign policy, the country has become a favorite tourist destination for the Chinese that further stressed the capacity of the NAIA.

Airport congestion may become regular fare because of the influx of tourists and the rising number of Filipinos who travel for work and leisure.

Government needs managers who accept responsibility and know how to move forward from a crisis.