Heavy rains spawned by the southwest monsoon forced at least 19 flights from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to divert at the Clark International Airport in Pampanga late Friday (August 12).
A report from the Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC) Airport Command Center (ACC) said that 19 flights from NAIA were diverted due to bad weather caused by the southwest monsoon prevailing over Central and Northern Luzon.
Passengers of a Cebu Pacific flight from Tacloban and Etihad Airlines from Abu Dhabi disembarked at the Clark Airport and were provided transportation, in coordination with the airlines and CIAC. All of the passengers landed safely at Clark airport.
Others diverted to Clark were Cebu Pacific flights from Tagbilaran, Vigan, Cebu, El Nido, Dipolog, Caticlan, Mactan, and Bacolod. Others are Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong, Zest Air flight from Tagbilaran, Airphil flight from Iloilo, Kuwait Airways flight from Kuwait, Emirates Airline flight from Dubai, Philippine Airlines flight from Honolulu, ITI Air flight from Taiwan, China Southern flight from Gungzhou, and Singapore Airline flight from Singapore.
ACC said that some of the diverted aircraft with their passengers had returned to NAIA after refuelling at Clark Airport late Friday night.
The diversion of aircraft started late Friday afternoon. All passengers landed safely at Clark.
As of press time, there has been no advise for diversion of flights at the Clark Airport. Operations at Clark are normal with no cancellations of flights.