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The May 17 maintenance at the Air Traffic Management Center has been completed earlier than scheduled
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No flight disruptions were reported
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The activity, scheduled from 2:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. was accomplished in just over an hour, or from 2:00 a.m. to 3:13 a.m.
The Air Traffic Management Center (ATMC) maintenance on May 17 has been completed earlier than scheduled with no flight disruptions.
The activity, scheduled from 2:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. was accomplished in just over an hour, or from 2:00 a.m. to 3:13 a.m., the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said in a statement.
CAAP said the corrective maintenance did not affect the Philippine airspace and air traffic controllers reported no flight disruptions during the maintenance operation.
Manila International Airport Authority, in a separate statement, said the maintenance had no impact on flight operations, which as of 03:20 a.m. have resumed without any disruptions.
CAAP noted it promptly notified the Manila Control Tower of the completion of the maintenance activity. Personnel manning the Communications Navigation Surveillance Systems (CNSS) and Air Navigation Service (ANS) reported normal operations at the ATMC.
CAAP said continuous monitoring and finetuning of the CNSS and ANS are being undertaken to ensure the unimpeded operations of airports throughout the country.
The May 17 scheduled maintenance followed the first part conducted last March 3 from 2:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m.
CAAP earlier said the corrective maintenance activity is necessary to repair the automatic voltage regulator (AVR), replace the uninterruptible power supply (UPS), and upgrade the air traffic management system (ATMS) A/B power supply.
The ATMC houses the communications, navigations, surveillance/air traffic management (CNS/ATM) system, which manages and supervises the air traffic activities within the Philippine Flight Information Region (FIR).
It may be recalled that last January 1, the power supply of CAAP’s CNS/ATM system broke down and resulted in the cancellation of hundreds of flights in the country. CAAP director general Manuel Antonio Tamayo earlier said the CNS/ATM system “at this point in time is still state of the art and a gold standard as far as air traffic control is concerned” but it needs upgrade on the software and hardware.
The ATMS power supply upgrade will involve the installation of a bypass panel to provide seamless ATMS operation and the reconfiguration of the existing distribution panel to segregate ATM system A (voice) and ATM system B (data), resulting with the UPS and AVR serving as each other’s backup in case the other power supply encounters a problem.
An AVR functions as a protection against surges as it regulates the voltage delivered to devices and a UPS ensures equipment has uninterruptible power supply.
