⌛ Night Flights to Dumaguete...coming soon?

FYI...Interesting news regarding the Dumaguete airport getting runway lights. This could make travel connections more convenient if night flights get scheduled..
11 provincial airports get runway lights

THE Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has provided runway lights to 11 provincial airports to enable them to operate at night and to allow domestic flights to spread their schedule and avoid congestion during departures in Manila.

In a dialogue among CAAP, the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) and domestic carriers Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, Zest Air and Sea Air, it was discovered that congestion at the premier airport was due to domestic carriers bundling their departures early in the morning, at noon, and sometime in the afternoon so that all their planes would be able to take off for Manila before sunset.

Congestion occurs when more than 36 departures are made within an hour at the NAIA. The operators do this so their planes can return to Manila before making another provincial run, maximizing their operations during the daylight hours.

CAAP director general Ramon S. Gutierrez said runway lights are being provided to the 11 provincial airports, namely Puerto Princesa, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, Davao, Kalibo, Laoag, Iloilo, Bacolod, Tacloban, General Santos and Dumaguete, to enable these ports to serve airlines at night. He said the MIAA has also fixed the allowed number of departures per hour to a maximum of 36 flights for the safety of the flying public.

Gutierrez also announced that performance-based navigation (PBN), a component of the Communication, Navigation System/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) which uses satellite navigation instead of ground-based equipment, is now under construction within the CAAP compound.

"CNS/ATM is the next generation of air traffic management and communications system, which is being constructed under the Transportation and Communications department," Gutierrez said. Once completed in 2013, he said this system will do away with ground-based navigation aids such as very high frequency omni directional range, non-directional beacon, and other post World War II vintage system.

Gutierrez said air traffic management in the country in the near future will rely solely on satellites, so that aircraft which has compatible equipment in its cockpit could fly directly from point of departure to point of destination. –Jay Chua

Malaya | National

 

Very interesting info, thank you for posting.

 

Cool just read this,it caught my eye cause I'm in Manila catching the night flight to Hawaii for 2 weeks there and back to Negros.....So night lights for night flights and how many brown outs will coincide with your night flight to dumaguetes very short runway:o???

 

When they install lights, they also install a generator. The cutover time is published in the AIP so Pilots Know

Dumaguete actually has runway lights, I have used them. The Approach Lights do not work, they are apparently notamed as Unservicable. The tower had me try them out for one day. Seemed ok to me but then I was not flying an A320.

The tower closes at 5pm as well, so they will need additional controllers, etc for the night ops

From a pilots perspective, runway length is runway length, makes no difference whether it is night or day. You have to land it "in the zone" or go around and have another go if you "cock" it up.

Personally, I prefer to land at night, less distractions and you have excellent aiming points, very precise.

Another issue will be the approaches, Dumaguete simply does not have any. Flights form Manila go "Off Airways" at one or two IFR Reporting points up north, from then on, they are technically a vfr flight. Generally they contact Dumaguete Tower before going off airways and the Duma Tower instructs them to continue visually and report at 10 miles DME

If there are to be night flights, then there has to be approaches published as, in the Philippines, there is, sadly, NO Night VFR, it is all IFR

As usual, the CAAP have not thought through all the issues, and it is likely the announcement was aimed at putting the focus on blaming the airlines for the congestion when in fact it is a lack of Ground Controllers that is really causing the problems right now.

Having said all that, it is true that flying at night does increase the traffic volume for a given airport so it has merit if thought through carefully and applied properly

Cheers

 

I think it's good news for a small town such as Dumaguete to have more flight in and out, not such good news if one lives directly under the flight path though but hey that's progress....we'll see WHEN it happens.