Airports and 2015 resolutions

For the last 16 months of the Aquino government, there remains a must-do list that needed solutions yesteryears ago. But it’s never too late with the tried and tested political will that has been amply demonstrated by this President.

If only he had the right fix-it man for the job, there’s still a chance that most of these perennial problems could be solved, or at least reduced to a more tolerable and acceptable level before he steps down. 

Below are actual testimonials from ‘travail-lers” who experienced firsthand the worst airport in the world.

Nightmare at NAIA

I arrived from a 1 1/2 hour flight from HK on Dec 11, and NAIA 3 was a mess. (I did NOT fly Cebu Pacific). It took my driver one hour to get from the bottom of the NAIA 3 driveway to Bay 8, which is less than a kilometer. It then took nearly an hour again to get from Bay 8 to the nearby skyway entrance. (Note, this was well before the real “crush” of holiday travel.) 

Inside, this is what NAIA 3 was like:

• There were no baggage carts, so porters were scrambling to help passengers or scratching their heads, smiling apologetically. (Meanwhile, at the end of the airport driveway lay dozens and dozens of baggage carts piled up on the side with no one moving them.)
• It took more than 10 minutes just to maneuver to get out of the door to the driveway. The reason? A guard was answering people’s queries as they exited, without having the common sense to pull them over to the side, hence blocking the doors. This went on several times as the rest of us watched the guard taking her time to talk to people about the traffic…blocking the doors the whole time. Two policemen (the “police presence” policy) joined the discussions, making the exit even more congested.
• The loudest complaints I heard that night were from a European tourist who was berating his wife for wanting to come to the Philippines. He was swearing never to come back again. He was with a group of about six other foreigners, and they all agreed. Next year: back to Bali.

My cousin landed at 10pm that same night, also from a short flight (NOT on Cebu Pacific). After being sent to the wrong conveyor belt (along with a planeload of passengers), he was finally pointed towards the right one. He waited one hour for his luggage because two conveyor belts were not functioning. All the luggage from all the flights were crammed onto one conveyor belt. He reached his home in Alabang close to 1:00 am.

Other incidents at NAIA 3 were experienced by friends and family; NONE of them were flying Cebu Pacific and NONE were flying on the 24th or 25th:

• One traveler left on a long haul flight on the 16th of December. It took him one hour to get from the skyway exit at Resorts World to the entrance of NAIA 3. When he arrived at the airport, he could barely make it to the check-in counter because the airport was FULL of people who were not passengers. In true Filipino style, there were probably at least 3 family members “making hatid” for every 1 passenger. Well-wishers blocked the passageways, blocked the entrances to the check-in counters (chatting with the guards or attendants at those points)…hanging out to wave goodbye one more time. (As much as we appreciate the Filipino tradition of greeting and sending people off, at what point will authorities realize that our airports undisputedly cannot handle the volume of passengers, much less the well-wishers, and that we should revert to barring non-passengers from the terminal?)
• Two other friends scheduled to leave for short haul trips missed their flights for the same reasons, despite the fact that each left their homes in Makati almost 4 hours before their flights. Neither party bothered rebooking; they cancelled their trips. (What was the point? The next few days would be the same.) 
• Friends from HK were due to have a 4-day holiday here. We actually told them not to come, as they would have wasted half their time on the nightmares of NAIA 3.

While everyone knows our airport facilities are lacking, the majority of issues have clearly to do with ineffectiveness, lack of organization and systems, poor maintenance and ultimately, bad management. It’s all well and good that they found someone to blame (Cebu Pacific), but they’d be blind or shockingly stubborn if they truly believed they found the culprit. For airport authorities not to be alarmed until the horrendous lines at Cebu Pacific appeared, is downright stupidity. For them to think that is the only problem to address, is beyond that.

The managers of the airports should all be sacked. MIAA is not a provincial airport where laidback, outdated practices might be expected or forgiven. This is our capital; the gateway to our “progressive” country. Secondary, tertiary and even quaternary cities and towns across Asia have more streamlined ports of entry.

Inadequate airport facilities or “hardware” is one thing (those apparently will not be addressed for another decade); but there is absolutely no excuse for the incompetent and lackadaisical way our airports are run.

SLH, Fil Am

Manila Ninoy Aquino Airport customer review :  21 December 2014 

Once again arrived at this awful airport on the morning of the 11th to find it still in full-blown renovation which is like a maze to negotiate for the passengers as nothing was clearly sign posted. But as I have been a regular it was not so bad. For a first time arrival it would be a nightmare. Immigration was busy and the number of counters had halved! Made it twice as long to get through. Customs was a breeze as there were none on duty when I entered the baggage hall so straight to arrivals and out of the hot stuffy place as there was no air-conditioning working sufficiently to keep the area cool. Avoid this terminal if you can at this time.

R Clarke (Saudi Arabia)

28 October 2014 

I flew using NAIA Terminal 3 with much expectations being the newest terminal but ended up disappointed. In terms of improvements, there are more shops, more spaces for passengers to wait before checking-in or before immigration. After immigration, there were not many seats hence you will find passengers seated on the floor, shops are expensive. Airport is still problematic because of too much congestion resulting in significant flight delays. Many facilities are still under renovation such as escalators that have not been working for months. Public transport services are chaotic. Baggage service is chaotic and delayed. My baggage went to a different concourse belt rather than the one announced.

Ryan Silverio, Philippines 

There are many more comments that are angrier and nastier. But there’s no need to belabor the point. The effect on the country’s tourism is a given. Worst, our image as the new investment haven gets a kick in the face each time someone lands in Manila.

Who can fix this mess? – Rappler.com