Our reputation as a country is at stake at the airports

Published March 7, 2023, 12:05 AM

by Manila Bulletin

“Revenge travel” is real and crowds are heading to airports to start their journey to local or international destinations, eager to enjoy the tourism spots that were out of reach during the pandemic. That dream vacation, however, could instantly turn into a nightmare even before one steps inside a plane.

In recent news and on social media, Filipinos have expressed disappointment and dismay over how our main airport terminals are being operated. Travelers missed their flights not because they were late or lacked documents, but they were delayed by the long immigration lines. Some netizens even claimed that there were hundreds of people in the line, with only three immigration counters open.

This incident has reached the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), which vowed to address this predicament. In a statement by MIAA general manager Cesar Chiong, he said that the “MIAA is working with the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to ease congestion of departing passengers at the immigration counters at the NAIA, particularly at Terminal 3.” 

“We are getting the commitment from the BI to increase their manpower even before the surge of passengers comes during the peak hours of the day, in order to arrest the build-up of passengers,” Chiong said. “The processing time is critical here. If we can increase the processing rate of our immigration channels for each passenger, they should not have to wait too long even if the queue grows.”

MIAA also said that it has “requested that airlines open their check-in counters earlier, as arriving passengers who are unable to check-in right away add to the queue.”

Anticipating the surge of vacationers as April soon rolls in, and as summer brings with it a throng of incoming and outgoing travelers, the MIAA has said that it is “looking for ways to alleviate the issue as much as it can.”

In the statement, Chiong said that there will be new e-gates for departing passengers. “In addition to the existing electronic gates, or e-gates, installed by BI for arriving Philippine passport holders, MIAA is also advocating for the installation of new e-gates for departing passengers in order to reduce travelers’ processing time even further.”

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Last December, MIAA noted that it had removed the initial screening checks at terminal entrances to facilitate passenger entry. By mid-year, MIAA is “preparing to roll out more improvements in immigration processing, including a physical re-laying out of Terminal 3 to make room for more immigration counters, and the reassignment of terminals, which aims to turn Terminal 2 into all-domestic.”

It is comforting to know that there are improvements to look forward to with our airports and how the MIAA recognizes the improvements that it has to implement. The MIAA and everyone involved with our airports’ operations should be aware of the consequential “optics” — it takes one long line at the immigration counter, one incident of theft by airport personnel, or an operational oversight to taint our country’s image as an “investment haven” or a “tourism paradise.” Our reputation is at stake.

At this point in time, we couldn’t risk having unreliable airports, especially as our country recovers from the pandemic and as businesses are in need of tourism revenues. Will our airports become a tourism enabler or a tourism deterrent? The lines will soon reveal.