Brutal airport traffic

NAIA Terminal 3 had been a big problem from the start. Badly tainted by corruption during its construction period over the terms of several presidents, the curse continues to this day.

It should have been the model terminal, being the newest, but NAIA management can’t seem to get things right. Terminal 1, the oldest of the 3 terminals, seems to be doing better.

A serious traffic problem has plagued T3 for quite a while now. The lack of proper planning is to blame. A high-density property development was allowed across the airport with no regard to the resulting heavy traffic of vehicles at most times of the day or night. The mall, the casino, the hotels and the several residential condo towers plus the regular airport traffic and the absence of sensible traffic management have all brought about an intolerable situation.

How bad is it? I wrote about the experience of a friend who complained on Facebook that it took her an hour from Villamor to the departure platform of Terminal 3 and it took her husband who drove her to the airport almost an hour to traverse the departure driveway to the street below. I got a number of reactions from readers on why that is happening and what should be done.

“Boo, I had a similar experience two weeks ago,” a friend wrote. “I live in Magallanes and the airport is at the back of the subdivision. It took me an hour and a half to get to the departure doors. Spent that hour nervously looking at the clock and wondering whether we will make it on time. Terrible experience for investors and tourists.”

Wrote another: “Hi Boo. Thank you for highlighting this issue for the nth time. I would be very interested to hear of how SMC/DOTr will improve access to NAIA via public transport. As long as each of us will rely on our cars to get to NAIA, traffic getting there will only get worse. It has reached the point where a congestion charging zone around the airport could be considered (with airport buses and other public transport exempt).”

The problem is, public transport had been tried at NAIA and it didn’t work. Transport entrepreneur Bert Lina fielded his Ube Airport Bus seven years ago but as his operations manager puts it, “the business travelers appreciate the convenience but OFWs and vacationers still want to bring cars and hordes of relatives.”

They still run the airport bus service from Cubao, Manila, Sta. Rosa, Alabang, PITX and Ortigas. But I guess because of the lack of passengers, not often enough to make a difference. I have noticed the Ube buses are now being used by the airlines to ferry passengers to the planes. In other countries, the airport buses run on the hour or even more often, enabling airline passengers to plan to use it instead of a taxi or a hired car.

But yes, more airport buses will decongest the roads to the airport terminals… if we can get Filipinos to use it.

A reader observed that “the traffic situation in T3 got worse after SMC got the award… wonder why? No more incentives for NAIA bureaucrats and operators to make money… In other words, their ‘happy days’ are about to end… so why would they lift a finger to improve operations both in and out of NAIA??... Their attitude is “problema na ni RSA yan…” and for sure those who will be left behind and ‘business’ affected will use their remaining regulatory/monitoring powers to stymie and monkey-wrench SMC and RSA along the way…”

Said another: “Basically it’s caused by the number of vehicles that want to enter their open-parking area. Short term wise, they can open the parking on the right side where they had a fire a few months ago. Mid-term, they can put a multi-level parking building on the current open- parking area and design it in such a way that vehicles can drive up to the higher floors to avoid a bottleneck. When I would mention the traffic to Terminal 3 senior managers, they would simply shrug.”

RSA told me that they will put up parking buildings in all three terminals.

Someone who claims to be an urban mobility expert reacted: “Unfortunately, a car park will only encourage further car use and exacerbate traffic. Enhancing high quality public transport access should be a top priority—what we need to make NAIA a world-class, tourist-oriented airport. The subway service to NAIA will still take many years, but an efficient high quality airport bus service can be introduced earlier. The airport bus services from Narita to key Tokyo hotels and city terminals are a good model to emulate.”

But then, Mr. Urban Mobility Expert, you are being theoretical. Bert Lina has put and lost money on the idea that an airport bus service would be great. There is a cultural problem involved. Pinoys didn’t like the airport buses. Maybe the subway will work but we have to wait a few years to know that.

Still another observed: “Terrible access at T3 departure is due to chaotic curbside parallel unloading. Solution is to use the T1 scheme, which I recommended two decades ago and got adopted against foreign consultant prescriptions.”

Like all of our current problems, NAIA’s problems can be traced to lack of adequate planning. Everything is ad hoc. NAIA grew like a squatter colony, barong-barong facilities built as needed with no regard for the whole. Three terminals far from each other. We can’t wait until the Bulacan airport is operational. That was well planned from the start, designed to be an airport much like some of the best in the world today.

In the meantime, more band aid solutions for NAIA to make it bearable.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X @boochanco.