DOT optimistic airport woes will be solved soon

Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Wikipedia photo

MANILA — With rehabilitation efforts at Ninoy Aquino International Airports (NAIA) terminals underway, the Department of Tourism (DOT) expressed optimism that it won’t be long before passengers experience the last of their airport woes.

“I am positive that (the country’s) airport problems will be solved soon,” DOT Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. said during Thursday’s budget hearing on tourism.

The Secretary, however, admitted that there definitely was a need to improve the country’s airports, especially after being rated by various travel sites and organizations as the world’s “worst airport.”

NAIA was ranked at first as the world’s worst airport in 2011 and again in 2013.

Travel sites and organizations often pinpointed NAIA’s being over-crowded, having limited seats and encountering delays, difficult transfers, dirty bathrooms among many other factors.

Jimenez also emphasized the importance of NAIA on tourism since the airport accounts for about 75 percent of the country’s passenger arrivals.

At present, rehabilitation of NAIA terminals 1 and 2 continue, however, major upgrades for the NAIA terminal 3 were completed last month, which helped pave the way for the transfer of five airlines from terminal 1.