The Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the busiest air hub in the country, has not been delisted from being one of the world's most stressful airports, but the Department of Transportation wanted to reverse its global standing by fast-tracking projects designed to usher long-term growth.
"As I said at the start of my term, I welcome suggestions, comments, and even criticism.Any derogatory assessment of the country's current transportation situation serves as a challenge for us to do more," Transportation Secretary Jaime J. Bautista said.
He added: "We are fast-tracking various transport projects carried over from the past administration despite financial and bureaucratic challenges.
According to data consolidated by the travel blog the Hawaiian Islands, NAIA ranks third "most stressful" airport in Asia and Oceania.
The blog analyzes more than 1,500 Google reviews for over 500 airports globally. It focused on the sentiments expressed in the reviews based on stress indication.
Data showed that nearly 58 percent of passengers passing through NAIA experienced stress, which made it the third most stressful gateway in the Asia and Oceania regions.
United Kingdom's Manchester Airport was dubbed as the world's worst airport according to the study. It booked 82.5 percent of reviews indicating stress.
Of the 10 airports in the rogue list, four were from the UK and the others were elsewhere in Europe.
According to Bautista, the DoTr and its attached agencies will "redesign the framework of undertaking transport projects through effects to the riding public may take time because we are looking long-term."
NAIA currently has a rated capacity of 35 million passengers and 250,000 flights.
Airports body creation pushed
Senate Bill 1073 which proposes the creation of the Philippine Airports Authority was recently filed to improve the airport system.
The proposed law will allow the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines to be strengthened to effectively oversee the aviation industry.
The DoTr was also tasked to implement programs and projects to improve the airport's quality of service.
The improvements must also include a study on an on-time motion identifying how long a passenger processes travel requirements in the airport before plane boarding based on the proposed measure.
"All this tediousness adds to the painfully long three to four hours of boarding procedure, which is sometimes even longer than the flight time itself. We should stop this ridiculousness all at once using actual data to improve passenger experience," a proponent of the bill said.
Airport concessionaires should operate all day, armed with cashless payment methods, and automated teller machines available 24/7.
NAIA rehab prodded
Bautista was urged to tap the Public-Private Partnership project to rehabilitate NAIA.
"Please do not let this project remain as a 'PowerPoint Presentation' during your time," a senator said.
Early this year, Megawide Construction Corp. said it remains open to reviving its proposal to transform the NAIA into a first-class air hub with the Marcos administration.
"If we propose again, we have a good proposal, we have a very good project — it's just unfortunate that it did not push through… If the new administration is interested, why not? The proposal is ready and we never closed our doors," Megawide president Manuel Louie Ferrer told reporters in a chance interview.
'We are fast-tracking various transport projects carried over from the past administration despite financial and bureaucratic challenges.'
Despite the substantial progress, the much-needed NAIA rehabilitation was back to square one after the previous administration rejected the proposal of Megawide and its foreign partner GMR Infrastructure Ltd to overhaul the international gateway.
According to the Manila International Airport Authority, the Megawide consortium failed to convince the government of its financial ability to support the project. Thus, Megawide prioritized transport-oriented projects with the government.