Regular PAL flight schedules restored by Jan. 4 —spox

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) on Tuesday said its regular published flight schedules would be restored by Wednesday, January 4, after the temporary shutdown of the Philippine airspace on New Year's Day.

“By tomorrow, we restore our regular published schedules,” PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said in an interview on Dobol B TV.

However, she said considering the peak season, there would be external factors that may lead to delays even under normal circumstances.

Villaluna said there would be no more flight cancellations on Tuesday that are related to the glitch in the air navigation facility of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).

In a statement sent to GMA News Online, the PAL spokesperson reiterated that the transition to normal flight operations will be completed on January 4 “after fully completing our recovery flights and extra sector flights.”

“Although the radar system has been fully restored, the return to Manila hub of our stranded aircraft the day after the  incident led to flight delays covering the Jan 2 to 3 period. PAL operated 30 recovery flights,” she said.

Regarding the rebooking process, Villaluna said affected passengers were accommodated on replacement flights, extra sector flights and regular flights.

“They were given the option to rebook, refund or to convert their unused tickets into travel vouchers for use within one year from date of issuance,” she said.

“We have gradually calibrated our operations as we transition into normal flight operations,” she added.

Meanwhile, budget carrier Cebu Pacific said it has normalized operations as of January 3.

“This includes a number of recovery flights we've mounted to fly passengers within the day,” Cebu Pacific said.

For AirAsia, spokesperson Carlo Carongoy said that “there are no more stranded AirAsia passengers in the airport right now” as “most of those affected by the incident last Sunday were either rebooked to the next available flight or their flights were converted to credit account.”

“While our operations have slowly returned to normal (with minimal delays due to air traffic congestion), today we mounted 12 recovery flights to destinations such as Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, and Davao,” Carongoy said.

“We see our operation fully normalize in the next four days,” he added.

At least 282 flights were canceled, diverted, or delayed on Sunday, January 1, as CAAP recorded a technical issue at the Philippine Air Traffic Management Center (ATMC) at 9:50 a.m.

Some 56,000 passengers were affected at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), the country's main gateway.

Transport officials said an "outdated" system caused the glitch.

The CAAP said one of the uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) failed on Sunday morning, and troubleshooting activities had to be done.

Malacañang on Monday said a thorough probe is being done by concerned agencies. —Joviland Rita/Ted Cordero/KBK, GMA Integrated News