British firm tapped to ease air traffic at Naia

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has tapped a British air traffic management company to help ease runway bottlenecks at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia).

The DOTC said the P66 million contract with British firm, Nats Holdings, aimed to increase by 50 percent the hourly air traffic movements—or the landing and takeoff activities—from the current 40 to 60 movements. Nats will be able do this by “determining the optimal configuration for the airport’s intersecting runways,” the department said.

It said air traffic congestion is expected to improve over the next 12 months.

The move came after the DOTC abandoned other options to increase runway utilization, including the construction of a second parallel runway at Naia, the country’s busiest air gateway.

A crowded runway means airline operators have to spend more for fuel, while flight delays also carry their own economic costs. The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) estimated airlines lose at least P7 billion per year due to congestion at Naia.

“We are excited to work with one of the world’s best firms in the industry towards optimizing Naia’s runway capacity. With Nats—which has worked on the Dubai, Singapore, and Heathrow airports—we can expect safer, more efficient operations, and much less flight delays and cancellations,” Transportation Secretary Joseph Abaya said in a statement.

Nats, formerly known as National Air Traffic Services, provides air traffic navigation services to the world’s busiest single- and dual-runway airports. These include London Gatwick, which handles 53 air traffic movements per hour and over 250,000 flights per year; and London Heathrow, which handles 90 air traffic movements per hour and over 470,000 flights per year.

The DOTC said the company has boosted runway capacity at the Hong Kong International Airport by 30 percent.

It also redesigned Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport’s airspace. It is now tasked to increase air traffic movement at the Singapore Changi Airport.

For the first six months, Nats will evaluate Naia’s current airspace, runway, and terminal capacities; air traffic and surface operations; runway access points; as well as air traffic control training.

The department said the contract with Nats aimed to optimize runway capacity by cutting aircraft’s occupancy times, develop air traffic controllers’ surveillance capabilities through technology, determine needed alterations to access points, and maximize available airspace by reducing restrictions and making procedural improvements to tighten intervals between aircraft movements.

The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) and CAAP will then implement the recommendations over the next six months.

The agencies have implemented certain steps to help ease runway congestion, including the reactivation of Runway 31 in July and the relocation of general aviation activities.