Avoid repeat of New Year 2023 travel fiasco—Binay to DoTr

Senator Nancy Binay has urged the transport authorities to ensure smooth travel for Filipinos and tourists during this year's holiday celebration. 

Binay hopes the Department of Transportation will do its best to prevent a repeat of a travel fiasco that happened during the observance of the 2023 New Year's Day. 

She said the DOTr should "put its best foot forward to guarantee that the power outages and technical glitches that crippled aviation and airport operations last January 1 and May 1 this year would not happen again."

The senator cited the series of power outages from January 1 to May 1 this year—that seriously affected the operations of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport terminals and canceled over 600 flights—leaving thousands of passengers stranded. 

Binay, meanwhile, believed that the DOTr has prepared concrete actions to avoid operational disruptions during the Christmas travel peak.

She said the DOTr should not only focus on air travel but also ensure smooth travel in other public transportation access such as seaports and bus terminals.

"Seaports and bus terminals usually face holiday chaos as thousands scramble home for Christmas and New Year," she underscored. 

Binay said the transportation authorities should ensure the safety and security of all travelers by closely monitoring overbooking in all public transportation. 

Meanwhile, Binay appealed to travelers to cooperate with security personnel when passing through the usual screening process.

She added that passengers should prepare for reasonable delays in the schedule "as almost all points of entry and exit are expected to be swarmed with people and cargoes" during this peak season. 

"Everyone expects some degree of chaos from point of origin to destination. What we expect from our transport officials is to manage the string of chaos that is expected, and put to work measures necessary to avert another holiday meltdown," said Binay.

"I am optimistic that Sec. [Jaime] Bautista will make sure that everyone will be home on Christmas, and do everything so that passengers won't be confronted with travel disruptions until the new year," she added.