The holidays at NAIA

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Dec. 20, 2025, just made local history.

It was the day when 171,306 passengers and 950 flight movements passed through Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), marking the highest single-day totals ever recorded at the country’s primary international gateway.

According to news reports, Terminal 3 carried the heaviest load, with over 90,000 passengers, or more than half of the total traffic across all three terminals.

The New NAIA Infra Corp. (NNIC), the private consortium led by San Miguel Corp. and Incheon International Airport Corp. that took over the management and operations of NAIA in September of last year, revealed that operations remained stable despite these historic volumes. It cited tighter gate allocation, airside coordination and ramp management during peak hours as among the reasons.

Imagine the catastrophe had NAIA remained under government control.

NNIC likewise credited close coordination among airlines, immigration, ground handlers and air traffic controllers for keeping the system moving under pressure.

Passenger traffic at NAIA is expected to reach 2.55 million from Dec. 20 to Jan. 4 of next year, or about five percent more than the number of travelers in the same period of 2024, while the number of flights is projected to reach 13,700.

Passengers were also treated to several wonderful surprises befitting the holidays.

Just over a week ago, an e-gates system was launched at NAIA Terminal 3 with no less than President Marcos in attendance.

The President said in his remarks that passengers can now clear in as little as 20 seconds, with further improvements expected as the system continues to learn and stabilize.

NNIC reported that a total of 78 biometric immigration e-gates are being deployed across NAIA under a phased rollout, with systems already operational at Terminals 1 and 3, where international flights operate.

The e-gates system, developed by global leader Collins Aerospace, enables eligible passengers to complete immigration clearances in approximately 20 seconds, helping to ease congestion during peak travel periods. It utilizes biometric identity verification and document authentication, as well as face scanning, to streamline processing while meeting the security requirements of border authorities. The platform is powered by Amadeus, a global travel technology company that provides advanced solutions to airports, airlines, and border authorities worldwide.

NNIC, aware that digitizing the ground-handling process would be ineffective if immigration remained in the analog age, invested over a billion pesos to procure these much-needed e-gates and donated them to the Bureau of Immigration. No need to wait years of bureaucracy for government procurement. No risk of corruption, too. That’s the beauty of privatization.

The country’s Chief Executive likewise graced the opening of two new food halls at Terminal 3 – the All-Filipino Food Hall and the Mezzanine Food Hall. The All-Filipino Food Hall is a 6,200-square-meter dining space that can accommodate up to 2,000 guests and features 17 homegrown brands. Meanwhile, the Mezzanine Food Hall, spanning 6,801 sq m, can accommodate up to 600 guests and features 22 standalone restaurants and cafes.

NNIC also inaugurated a new Dignitaries Lounge at Terminal 3, a 200-sq.m. facility designed to accommodate up to 61 guests, as well as a medical tourism concierge area.

NAIA’s private operator has likewise announced that it is preparing to open a new airside Food Village at T3, located after security clearance, which will feature a mix of well-known local and international brands.

The opening of newly built, tastefully designed, and well-curated food halls and food courts, along with a brand-new and larger OFW Lounge at Terminal 1, caps off a whirlwind first 15 months for NNIC at NAIA.

In fact, NAIA has seen more improvements than it has in the past five to 10 years when this gateway was still being managed and operated by the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA).

As of September of this year, NNIC had already invested P3.25 billion in upgrades under a P72-billion five-year plan.

Key improvements include new chillers, feeders and power substations; rehabilitated drainage and cleaned waterways around NAIA that eliminated flooding; upgraded airfield lighting, pavements, and power systems; refurbished terminal interiors, better Wi-Fi, and immigration queuing; new escalators, walkalators, X-ray units, and CCTV systems; automated parking system, centralized TNVS hub, and smoother traffic flow; wider curbsides and more parking spaces; 11,820 new chairs and 2,500 baggage trolleys; renovation of restrooms and construction of 10 new ones; and 20 new shuttle buses capable of serving half a million travellers; to name a few. Meanwhile, the construction of Terminals 4 and 5 is underway.

The government already received P57 billion from NNIC in the first year of the concession agreement. And there is more to come, as 82 percent of the revenues will go to the national coffers. Throughout the concession period, total revenues for the government are expected to reach P911 billion.

All these benefits without the government having to shell out public funds.

Last November, NNIC reported that NAIA has earned its first-ever global customer experience accreditation from Airports Council International (ACI), the global association of airport authorities representing over 2,000 airports. NAIA achieved Level 1 Airport Customer Experience Accreditation for meeting international standards in managing and improving passenger experience.

Not bad for an airport that was tagged as one of the worst in the world when it was under government management.

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