NAIA business not yet back to normal

MANILA, Philippines - It is “business unusual” at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminals, including Duty Free Philippines, as concessionaires and transport services were affected by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Manila.

For the whole week since Monday, almost all operations at the airport stopped and hundreds of flights were cancelled to give way to the arrival and departure of APEC leaders.

Aside from the cancellation of flights, major roads were also closed and some areas were locked down, causing monstrous traffic jams and stranding motorists and commuters, many of whom were forced to walk.

Concessionaires at the airport said sales plunged due to the cancellation of domestic and international flights and the closure of roads leading to the airport.

In many instances, taxicabs with passengers left NAIA in the morning and managed to return only late in the afternoon as they were stuck in traffic for hours.

Sherwin Alfaro, a reporter of radio dzRH, said that last Tuesday he helped an overseas Filipino worker carry her luggage from the Duty Free Philippines Fiesta Mall to NAIA terminal 1.

The OFW had to walk since her vehicle was stuck in traffic on the way to the airport to catch her flight to Doha, Qatar.

A foreign passenger who arrived at NAIA 1 and had to catch a connecting flight at NAIA 2 was quoted as saying that he was willing to pay as much as P3,000 if anyone could transport him to Terminal 2, around 700 meters away.

Some passengers paid motorcycle drivers P100 per bag just to take them from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2, while passengers going to Terminal 3 would have to shell out P200 per bag.

The Media Affairs Office of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) said that passengers with connecting flights could ride the airport shuttle buses that were deployed to ferry them to their respective terminals by passing through the airside route or service road around the tarmac.

Passengers are advised to go to terminals 1,2 and 3 and take the shuttle bus from there to any of the four NAIA terminals.

Some airlines diverted domestic and international flights from NAIA to the Clark International Airport in Pampanga.

With commercial flights restricted at NAIA, Cebu Pacific and Qatar Airways diverted yesterday some flights to Clark.

An airline source said other airlines opted not to divert flights to Clark because there would be a problem ferrying passengers from there to Metro Manila due to the traffic situation.

Transporting passengers by bus from Clark airport is the worst part because traffic is also heavy in many roads leading to Metro Manila.