Power outage hits Philippine airport, some flights cancelled

Manila: A power outage hit the Philippines' main airport on Monday, leading to flight delays and cancellations when an influx of passengers are expected after a long holiday weekend.

Forty domestic flights had been canceled so far at Terminal 3 of the airport in the capital Manila which services both international and domestic flights, the Manila International Airport Authority said in a statement. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered an immediate restoration of electricity.

"Standby power is now supplying electricity to critical facilities enabling computer systems of airlines and immigration to function partially and enable processing of both inbound and outbound passengers," the airport authority said. It said it is looking into the cause of the power failure which began at 1:05 am local time.

The outage came four months after a power failure forced authorities to close the Southeast Asian country's airspace on New Year's Day, affecting about 600 flights and stranding around 65,000 passengers. Monday is a public holiday in the Philippines and many were expected to fly back to Manila from a long holiday weekend.

Marcos, who left on Sunday for an official US visit, has instructed Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista to restore power at the affected airport terminal "as soon as possible" while assisting affected passengers, Marcos's communications office said in a tweet. Marcos is scheduled to meet with US President Joe Biden at the White House on Monday.

Cebu Pacific Air has told passengers to expect delays and cancellations on some of its flights, the airline said in a statement on its Facebook page.

Last week, six of the Philippines' biggest conglomerates revived a proposal to upgrade the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, submitting to the government a 100 billion-peso ($1.8-billion) plan to modernize and increase its capacity.