With NAIA-3, expect holiday ease

Thursday, 02 October 2008 05:27 Tarra Quismundo/Inquirer.net

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MANILA - Partial operations at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA 3) are expected to ease airport congestion during the holidays, the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) has said.

MIAA corporate affairs and airport development chief Tirso Serrano said operations at the recently opened terminal would ease the usual airport congestion during the annual year-end travel peak because most domestic flights have been operating at the facility.

“Definitely, it will be a big departure from the experience of passengers in 2006 and 2007 because now, we are seeing domestic passenger flow at NAIA 3, especially in terms of congestion during the Christmas season,” Serrano said.

“The new terminal will be big enough. And hopefully, we will serve the needs of other domestic airlines because now we will be able to entertain additional flights,” he said.

NAIA operations chief Octavio Lina said the travel rush has been expected around the middle of November, with roughly 17 to 20 percent increase in daily arrivals and departures.

The entire complex, including all three NAIA terminals and the Manila Domestic Terminal (MDT), see close to 55,000 outbound and incoming passengers daily, MIAA figures show.

Serrano said Cebu Pacific's move to Terminal 3 removed most of domestic traffic out of the old MDT, the aged facility that had shown the worst case of congestion in the past years.

CEB moved all of its domestic and international operations to NAIA 3 when the facility opened in July. With the airline now out of MDT, the old terminal now hosts only a tenth of the daily average passenger volume of 12,000 it had handled before NAIA 3 absorbed CEB's domestic flights.

“Right now, there's just a little over 1,000 passengers passing through the domestic terminal. It will undergo rehabilitation to get it ready for future flights,” Serrano said.

Besides CEB, Air Philippines and PAL Express also operate domestic flights at the recently opened terminal.

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