JEDDAH: At 4:10 p.m. on Monday, July 18, the Manila International Airport Authority announced closure of the airport’s main runway for unscheduled repairs and decided to divert flights to Clark International Airport about 120 km away from the capital, said director of Saudi Arabian Airlines in the Philippines, Abdurrahman Al-Abdulwahab.
In the wake of the announcement, two Saudi Arabian Airlines flights each one from Jeddah (SV 870) and Riyadh (SV 864) were diverted to Clark International Airport.
The flight from Jeddah landed at 4:35 p.m., and left at 1:24 a.m. to Manila after reopening of the airport and arrived safe at 2:15 a.m. The flight from Riyadh to Manila landed at the Clark airport at 7:35 p.m., and then took off Manila at 2:02 a.m. and arrived at 2:42 a.m.
“Due to the limited operational capacity at the Clark airport and accumulation of flights, out of the different airlines that were diverted from Manila International Airport, most of the airlines were not able to release passengers into the airport’s hall, forcing them to wait until flights were permitted to take off for the Manila airport after completion of maintenance,” said Al-Abdulwahab.
“Saudi Arabian Airlines apologizes to its guests on board its flights as the situation was outside the control of the airline,” he said.