The awfulness of Manila's Airport and why...

Anyone who visits the Philippines for the first time is bound to be dismayed by the awfulness of Terminal One at Ninoy Aquino Internationa Airport (unless he or she happens to fly in on Philippine Air Lines, and is consequently treated to the air conditioned, clean, calm of Terminal Two, which belongs to PAL.

Terminal One at NAIA is a disgrace.

But at some point the traveller takes a domestic flight from NAIA and discovers Terminal Three - spacious, calm, well appointed and modern, but with some curious features, such as the shortage of working airbridges, and the presence, in a domestic terminal, of Immigration and Customs booths, which are left unmanned.

So, the traveller is bound to ask, why do we have such a dump for the international arrivals and such a palace for domestic flights?

Because this is the Philippines.

When Aquino came to power the Government announced that the German company that had built Terminal Three as the intended new international terminal had bribed someone in the Arroyo administration to get the contract and the contract was therefore cancelled.

Unsurprisingly the German company lost interest in completing the terminal, and I understand that they are owed a lot of money.

Cebu Pacific have, no doubt in exchange for money, acquired the use of the incomplete Terminal Three for domestic flights...

There was also a plan floated to have Clark upgraded as the new International airport.
Quite a nice money spinner that one.

I like Clark.

That plan is still kicking around..

I flew out of Clark to HK on Thursday, having flown in there three weeks earlier, and was delighted with it, though Corina points out that it is hard to find Clark airport as one drives into Angeles. It is a delightful little airport with a nice new terminal building, able to handle at least two planes, and a gigantic runway, located not very far from Manila.

All that would be needed would be a high speed rail link into downtown Manila (OK, make that Makati) in addition to the existing North Luzon Expressway toll road and Robert would be one's mother's brother.

However... this is the Philippines.

Manila's airport is named Ninoy Aquino International Airport and Clark Field is named Diosdato Macapagal International Airport.

Lying as it does in Pampanga, home of the Macapagal-Arroyo dynasty, with a member of the Cojuanco-Aquino dynasty in the Malacanang Palace, I don't see Clark replacing Manila any time soon...

I'm smiling at that whilst thinking, now there someone who really understand the 'Philippine Problem'

Who knows the solution. But this power base of the great and the good political dynasties needs to change.
Oddly though, all those newcomers seem to want to join the club not change the club.
Look now, at how Manny Pacquiao is actually building his own new dynasty. (IMO)

And in full sight of eye.

Clark, the old US airbase, is now quite decent for short haul international destinations.

Cebu Pacific, Air Asia, and Tiger Airways/SEAir among others have daily flights from Clark to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and other Asian destinations.

Cebu Pacific also offers connecting international flights from many PI airports, via their Terminal 3 hub, however many of these are night flights and manage to recreate the depressing "overnight bus" atmosphere.

Just a shame that long haul airlines fly from Terminal 1.

Surprised that there is not more traffic into Cebu...

I know what Cebu Pacific are up to - known in Cathay as "the intelligent misuse of aeroplanes". If you can cover the cost of fuel, landing fees and flight deck and cabin staff (who may have hours to use up!), you should not leave your aircraft on the ground doing nothing but corroding in the tropical heat and wet... good for them. Cathay's use of long haul widebodies on the short HK/Manila and HK/Taipei hops are other examples of the same thing...

What happened to the International airport at Pangloa, Bohl? Much talked about it, herd nothing recently

Jim, we were there last November.
Everyone told us it is going ahead, and there is evidence of this.

Personally, I hope it stumbles and falls, as that's the area we are now pretty much decided to settle in.
I really don't want 1000's of stupid tourists disturbing me and increasing the cost and quality of living by that exponential amount.

Sorry to be so selfish. I want it to be just perfect for me

Manila's International Terminal, or Terminal 1, is a national disgrace and the airport itself is a prime candidate for closure - but that won't happen any time soon. One of the airport's major and lingering problems is that its principal navigational aids were likely purloined from the Ark and should have been replaced years ago.

Manila often awakens to a thick sea mist laying like a blanket on the coastal strip - which includes the airport. If a breeze picks up, that mist clears quite quickly but there's often no wind at all. Aircraft operations should not be affected because all they need do is switch-on the ILS (Instrument Landing System) and planes can continue to land. But this is the Philippines and Manila's ILS has the annoying habit of developing faults as does the airport's VOR beacon - which means planes aloft can't find the airport. Under these circumstances, they simply shut up shop and all inbound traffic is rerouted to Clark to sit and wait until Manila re-opens - which maybe as late as lunchtime.

Clark is often touted as being ripe for development to become the main airport on Luzon and move all international flights from NAIA there. It certainly has a long enough runway, the longest in the country and was in fact developed to cater for NASA's Space Shuttle should it need to be diverted. The problem is that although it has two runways, they are parallel to one another and both on the same side of the airport terminal. Unless a new terminal is built on the other side of the field, I can't see the airport being able to use both runways at the same time.

Cebu has recently announced that it can not accept any new traffic during the peak hours 10am to 2pm and has plans to build at least one more terminal. There is a rival consortium that announced plans to build a new larger airport at Cordova which is to be partly funded by selling-off MCIA's land. Since Mactan is a dual-use airport - military as well as civilian - and there's a PAF base and housing on-site, this may prove difficult to get through.

There's also talk of a new LCC terminal at Davao on the site of the original airport terminal building. This would be quite cheap to redevelop since the apron already exists and Cebu Pacific - who'd be the principal user - are quite happy not to use airbridges (they don't use any at Davao and try not to at Cebu and elsewhere - it's cheaper that way). However since terrorists bombed the original terminal building, local superstitions may make any redevelopment difficult.

I rather doubt that the proposed airport on Panglao will come to fruition despite the fact that some preparatory work has been carried out. The airport at Tagbiliran is under-utilised as it is and it's not clear to me where any additional traffic would come from. But it is election season here and politicians will say anything to secure their votes!

From my perspective, I found NAIA to be okayish compared to some I had been to in other developing countries. But I did notice the contrast with Terminal 3.

What shocked me when I travelled to Manila in 2011 was the state of the airport in - cant remember if it was Riyadh or Jeddah. How outdated it was and the stand up loos were horrendous.

I think Schipol is great too. But I seem to remember someone saying it was alive with mice?

Must be all the Dutch Edam!

Did you know that unlike other cheeses, that Edam is made backwards?

I hope they checked his boarding pass...

Could have been me, either here or on the dark side.
Mice were living in the base units of the large settees/sofas.
However, I was out there in late Nov and it does seem that the whole area has been gutted & refurbished, and the Pied Piper has earned his pay

I may be wrong, but I'm sure I was told that because of the smallness of the runway & parking apron, and only the capacity to have 1 aircraft on the ground at the same time, then there's a minimum of 2hrs between flights.

Are there night flights into Tagbiliran ? If so, I'll happily await the morning flight.

Took me a day to get that one...

I wasn't sure if people were ignoring with disdain or it had passed them by.

I tend to think that as NAIA is the "gateway" to the Philippines that it would be a good idea to upgrade / replace it with immediate effect. It is the first thing and last thing that people see of the Philippines as they come and go.