Airport general manager: Resignations cause MIAA 'brain drain'

"Brain drain" now plagues the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) following the resignation of ramp controllers who opted for more lucrative jobs abroad, the agency said Wednesday. Airport general manager Jose Angel Honrado said eight airport ramp controllers resigned last week, leaving the country’s premiere airport with only 31 ramp controllers. Ramp controller is a highly skilled and technical position directing aircraft movement, after landing, into the parking bays. The ramp controller needs to have a license from the Civil Aviation Training Center of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP). Despite the exodus of ramp controllers, the MIAA assured the traveling public that safety will not be compromised as there are still enough ramp controllers manning the three airport terminals. . Ramp controllers were hired as contractual workers with a monthly wage of P13,000. The growing air industry around the world triggered a big demand for licensed Air Traffic Controllers that offers big pay. An airport terminal requires 11 ramp controllers, with four and four manning the busy traffic shifts and three during slower airport traffic. At present, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 has nine ramp controllers, eight for Terminal 2, and five for Terminal 3. The Manila Domestic Airport has nine. The CAAP used to have supervisory control over the ramp controllers, but was replaced by the MIAA following the threat of work stoppage by the country’s air traffic controllers in the 1990s, according to the airport general manager. Rationalizing technical positions Honrado admitted there is a problem with the current pay scale of ramp controllers. The MIAA has signed a new order increasing the ramp controllers’ pay to P15,000 a month from P13,000, he said. The new compensation is temporary, Honrado said, as the MIAA Board is still in the final stages of rationalizing MIAA’s technical positions. This will still have to be approved by the Department of Budget and Management, he added. The rationalization covers three new positions at the Terminal Operations Center, including a Ramp Control Supervisor, Shift-in-Charge, and Ramp Controller with the equivalent government salary grades of 19, 18 and 15, respectively. Once approved, the new salary grades will be comparable to wages of air traffic controllers at the CAAP with a basic pay of P28,000 a month. Honrado said he has given specific instructions to MIAA assistant general manager for Finance and Administration Herminia D. Castillio to expedite the rationalization and processing of the new technical positions so they can forward it to the Budget Department. — VS, GMA News