MANILA -- President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Friday said the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) has normalized its operations following the January 1 glitch.

The President made this update after conducting an ocular inspection at the NAIA Terminal 3 where he also had a briefing from airport authorities regarding the technical aspects of the problem encountered by NAIA on New Year’s Day. 

While the airport is now back to normal operations, the President said there are concerns that should be addressed such as technical and contractual concerns.

“Ang sinabi ko lang kay Sec. Jimmy (Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista) is to make sure that we fast-track... whatever negotiations we have with the equipment suppliers who can help us with the upgrades for the software and the hardware of our equipment,” President Marcos said.

“And beyond that, is to have a proper backup system so if the whole system fails, like it did on January 1, we have a complete system ready to go. ‘Yun lamang, that might take a little time, but that is something that we will try to fast-track as quickly as possible," the chief executive pointed out.

There were pieces of equipment that bogged down, that’s why the entire system encountered loss of electricity, the President said, adding that there are already plans on the future redundancies for the system. 

“So kung mayroon mangyari ulit na ganito, mayroon tayo kaagad na kapalit. Hindi na tayo aabot ng anim na oras. Siguro mahaba na ‘yung ilang minuto lang,” Marcos said.

The President commended Cabinet secretaries, airport authorities, and all those involved in returning the system to normal for doing a good job despite the severity of the problem.

President Marcos also apologized to those affected by the disruption, saying the important thing is that they were given support during their ordeal.

“Pinapakain natin, mayroon silang pupuntahan, hindi naman sila basta’t pinabayaan na lang at we left them to their own devices, but we tried to support them in every way,” Marcos said.

“But of course, the most important thing is na makarating na sila doon sa kanilang talagang destination. And that... has been the best, the most important part, and that the best effort went into that," the President said.

The January 1 air traffic system failure affected over 56,000 passengers and more than 300 inbound and outbound flights. (PND)