THE upgrade of the airport radar system from land-based to satellite will be affecting six flights a day at most from March 6 to 11, 2017 at the Francisco Bangoy International Airport.
Davao airport manager Agnes Udang said, both Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines have already submitted their flight cancellations for the duration.
"Dili man gud pwede nadikit-dikit ang flights kung walay radar, kinahanglan magkalagyo gyud na sila (Air traffic should be spaced far from each other when you operate without a radar)," she said.
For CEB, the flights to be cancelled on corresponding dates are:
March 6: 5J593/594 - Manila-Davao-Manila
March 8: 5J977/978 - Manila-Davao-Manila
March 10: 5J969/972 and 5J977/978 - Manila-Davao-Manila
For PAL, one flight will be cancelled from March 6-11. this is flight PR2823/2824 serving Manila-Davao-Manila.
For Air Asia, the cancelled flights are flights 2612 and 2613 on March 6 serving Manila-Davao-Manila.
This may or may not lead to reduction of seats available because, Udang said, airlines may opt to use bigger airplanes instead to accommodate more passengers to continue serving the growing passenger arrivals and departures.
Udang said there is a perceptible increase in passenger arrivals this year, although they still have to get the final figures. Asked to give an estimate of the increase, she said it can be around 20 percent.
The Davao airport services around 60 commercial flights in a day.