10th most improved

For several years, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport was a national embarrassment, with travel websites rating it as the worst or among the worst gateways in the world. Congestion and flight delays, collapsing ceilings, lousy toilets and long lines at immigration, later aggravated by a bullet-planting scandal, contributed to the bad reviews of the NAIA.

A renovation of the old NAIA terminal and the full operation of Terminal 3 eased the congestion. Among the first acts of President Duterte when he assumed power was to put a stop to the bullet planting or laglag-bala. The transfer of some flights to the international airport in Clark, Pampanga also eased runway traffic.

The improvements have paid off. London-based research firm Skytrax has ranked the NAIA as the 10th most improved airport in the world in 2017. About 13.73 million travelers representing 100 nationalities participated in the Skytrax survey conducted in 550 airports around the world from August 2017 to February this year.

Airports were rated in terms of the quality of check-in services, security and immigration, departure at the gate, arrivals, transfers and shopping. Among the most improved, Rome’s Fiumicino Airport topped the list, followed by the gateways in Perth, Australia; Calgary in Canada; Taoyuan in Taiwan; Athens, Greece; Nadi in Fiji; Montreal, Canada; Moscow Sheremetyevo in Russia and Houston Intercontinental in the United States.

NAIA officials welcomed the Skytrax ranking and acknowledged the need to sustain the improvements, saying, “We are only as good as our last accomplishment.” Runway congestion and long immigration lines persist, and facilities overall can still use a lot of improvement.

Even better than sustaining the gains is aiming to be among the best. The NAIA suffers in comparison especially because several of the world’s best airports are located in this region. This year, Singapore’s Changi again topped the Skytrax ranking, followed by South Korea’s Incheon International, Haneda in Tokyo and the Hong Kong airport. In 2017, the Airports Council International, the global trade representative of airport authorities worldwide, ranked Incheon as the best airport for the 12th consecutive year.

Airports in China, Thailand and Malaysia are moving to catch up. The Philippines cannot afford to be left behind. The Skytrax survey should serve as an encouragement to do better.