NAIA porters to charge travelers P50 per bag

MANILA, Philippines - The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) will collect P50 per bag from all passengers who ask help from porters at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport starting on March 1, an official said yesterday.

MIAA general manager Jose Angel Honrado said the agency privatized the airport’s porter services to increase NAIA’s revenue. The use of the pushcarts remains free.

The MIAA board of directors awarded the porterage services contract to a professional service provider, Hire and Keep, Inc., which submitted the best offer during a public bidding held last Jan. 25.

There are 360 personnel working in the porterage services, 196 of them are baggage porters while 164 are baggage retrievers, who are banned from doing porter services, officials said.

Airport sources said that MIAA will likely to retain the baggage retrievers while the baggage porters will have to apply for jobs with the new contractor.

The source also said the MIAA will only get 10 percent of the contractor’s porterage services revenue.

Officials said porterage counters, where travelers can pay for a porter’s services, will be at the entrance of the terminal for departing passengers and after the customs counters for arriving passengers.