Even with the congestion woes and all, the country’s premier airport will have to shed six operating hours daily for about a year to give way to the periodic refurbishing of its runway.
The repair and maintenance works for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) will begin this month, entailing the gateway’s closure from 12 midnight to 6 a.m. daily.
This is done every six years to make sure the runway of the airport, where scores of commercial airplanes—many of which weigh the equivalent of 50 or more elephants—tread every day, is safe.
Heavyweights
The “heavyweights” that land at Naia almost every hour daily include the Airbus 330, which weighs 242 tons, and the Boeing 777, weighing 388 tons.
Once in a while, an airplane that weighs more than 100 elephants squashes the runway when an A380 comes to Manila to undergo maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO). The largest commercial aircraft in the world weighs 578 tons, or equivalent to the weight of some 116 elephants with an average weight of 5 tons.
Sometimes, too, the Russians’ Antonov plane or the Americans’ Galaxy 5, designed to carry extraordinary loads, land and take off at the Naia, contributing to the airstrip’s decline.
Effects
The premier airport is already reeling from air-traffic congestion, and it is expected that its six-hour closure to air traffic for 365 days would expectedly result in a decline in the number of flights. And less number of flights would mean foregone revenues that amount to millions of pesos a day.
Engineer Bing Lina, Naia assistant general manager for operations, said Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific are the two carriers whose schedules were greatly affected. However, he said, these carriers were able to reschedule their flights to conform to the closure, while some flights were canceled as slots had ran out.
He said some flights changed routes while others were able to have “planned delay,” coming or leaving the Naia outside of the runway closure.
PAL’s international flights from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver and New York employed the “planned delay.” “Scheduled to arrive at about 4 am, these flights were moved to land at a minute past 6 in the morning,” Lina said.
On the other hand, the flag carrier’s flights to Hong Kong, Narita, Kansai, Macau and Nagoya were rescheduled, as well as those for Siem Rep in Cambodia, and Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei.
Air Asia flights to Kuala Lumpur were rescheduled, including those from Denpasar, Indonesia, and Taipei.
Meanwhile, all departures of Cebu Pacific flights to Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Tablas, Butuan, totaling some 17 flights, were also moved to other time slots, according to Lina.
Aeronautical fees
Because of the high cost of maintaining an international-caliber airport, landing, takeoff and parking fees, bunched together as “aeronautical fees,” are expensive.
CEB spokesman Charo Logarta said it may take some time for the airline to provide the BusinessMirror the actual cost of aeronautical fees, meaning the charges for takeoff, landing and parking fees, from which the Manila International Airport (MIAA) derives its major source of income.
Cebu Pacific has about 230 to 250 flights daily in and out of Manila, of which about 20 percent are international.
“But as the largest Philippine carrier, Cebu Pacific [and subsidiary Cebgo, which operates out of Naia Terminal 4], we pay a significant monthly amount to MIAA,” Logarta added.
A list provided by Jess Martinez, head of Media Affairs Division (MAD), said charges, computed in US dollars, are as follows:
- for airplanes weighing from 50,000 kg upward, $2.48/500 kg, or a fraction thereof.
- from 50,001 kg to 100,000 kg, $248.12 plus $3.11 / 500 kg, or a fraction thereof in excess of 50,000 kg.
- from 100,001 kg and over, $557.73 plus $3.11/500 kg, or a fraction thereof in excess of 100,000 kg.
Charges for domestic operations were not included.
The Naia is estimated to have a yearly income of about P5 billion.
Repair, maintenance process
Engineer Ricardo Medalla, Naia assistant general manager for engineering who has been appointed project manager for the repair and overlay of Runway 06/24, thus describes how the uplifting of Naia would be done.
The repair of the airstrip, which could cost P540 million, is done every five years, according to Filjack, a Filipino-Japanese consultant that assesses the integrity of the runway based on the standards set by international aviation.
For more developed economies, the restoration is done every three years, Medalla added. He said runways of advanced economies are used more often by more and heavier airplanes, and therefore, their rate of deterioration is faster.
He said that even if the airfield is laid with a special formulation of bitumen, the constant pounding it receives daily from hundreds of airplanes takes its toll on the integrity of the landing field’s surface.
But the almost half-a-billion-peso budget for the repaving is only half the story. Another P165 million is also allocated to replace the 200 old runway center lights.
According to Medalla, the runway lights are actually made-to-order contraptions, with each light housed in a separate module. The modules are then buried on the ground in a specially prepared hole lined with concrete, about a meter deep and some 20 inches in diameter. Covering the light is an impact-proof, six-inch glass to withstand the force of two front landing gears smashing the ground on touchdown at speeds ranging from about 100 kilometers per hour for a landing plane and more than 200 kph for those taking off.
‘Derubberize’
All of these expensive maintenance is still separate from “derubberizing,” which requires another set of contract, done only by those with previous experience in this kind of work.
“You see, every time an airplane lands, the sheer weight of these behemoths leaves traces of rubber on the runway,” Medalla added. He said these rubber compounds that accumulate over time had to be removed by huge scrapers. The buildup soon develops into a rough surface that could cause accidents if not removed.
Readycon Construction Corp., a veteran runway repairer, has bagged the P540-million contract for the repair and overhaul of 06/24. The runway lights contract is up for bidding.
Asked who are qualified to bid for these projects, Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) General Manager Ed Monreal said bidders in one of these multimilllion peso projects “require not only money, but expertise.”
He said Readycon has practically cornered the contract because the contractor not only has the money and expertise, but also the myriad machineries to do the job.
Monreal added: “One of the stipulations for those wanting to bid in these airport projects is to meet the ‘Similar Project’ requirement,” which means that a contractor who had previously engaged in a project that is at least one half the amount the MIAA is offering for bidding,” he said.
“Readycon is under pressure to finish the job at 5 a.m., one hour before the runway is closed, because we need to cool the asphalt first,” said Fernando Palad, head of the project management office of Readycon.
Palad said a section of the runway is cleared, then the removal of two inches thick of the surface and then replaced with an equal thickness of asphalt.
To do this, an army of specialized equipment is lined up, starting with four milling machines that scrape the loose surface. This is followed by two asphalt pavers and one spare in case these conk out. The fresh layer is flattened by six rollers; four floodlights mounted on tall metal towers; two air compressors, two industrial-size vacuum cleaners to suck any debris and, finally, the water truck.
“Six hours is a very limited time,” Palad said, saying 400 tons of newly cooked asphalt loaded on 25 trucks are lined up ready to dislodge their cargo once the signal is given.
“All 25 trucks of asphalt must be dumped, laid, evenly flattened and cooled before any aircraft could land on it.
“It takes one hour to cool the asphalt, so we must finish the job at 5 a.m.,” Palad explains.
Medalla, on the other hand, is assisted by 10 engineers in the civil and electrical works. There are also three employees who are project coordinators, one on operation matters and another control-tower coordinator.
Image credits: Artyooran | Dreamstime.com