What’s next for NAIA?

THE CLAMOR FOR A NEW INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT THAT WILL SERVE THE GREATER METRO MANILA AREA HAS left a question for which no definite answer has yet been given: What about the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA)?

For Ed Monreal, general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) that oversees the operations of the airport, the future of the country’s primary gateway is uncertain. That is, at least until a clear plan is set in place, he tells STARweek.

With a record-breaking 42-million people using the airport last year, NAIA has long breached the 30-million combined passenger capacity of its four terminals.

And with more people expected to fly in the following years, some believe that the end is in sight for the airport.

From world’s ‘worst’ to ‘most improved’

The surge in the number of airline passengers has resulted in problems that have hounded air- port authorities for years: delayed flights, long lines, crowds and even taxi drivers making a killing with overpriced rates.

For three consecutive years, between 2011 and 2013, NAIA was named the world’s worst airport by a survey conducted by The Guide to Sleeping in Airports. It landed fourth in 2014 and fifth in 2016.

Issues cited by travelers include horrible transportation services, poor customer service and, in some years, leaking ceilings and the infamous tanim bala (bullet planting) scam.

These challenges, which may have led some quarters to consider NAIA a lost cause, did not stop Monreal from accepting the job to run the airport in 2016.

Plucked out of retirement by Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, Monreal had almost four decades of experience in the aviation industry that he brought with him to MIAA.

“It was something that I saw as giving back to the community. It’s the airport where I came from, I stayed there for almost 37 years,” he says.

“I moved around with Cathay (Pacific) and retired as a station manager in 2014. And then two years later, there came the opportunity. I said, why not try? I came from the airline, now I become a regulator. I can probably see what the airlines and the passengers are looking for,” he adds.

Two years into his term, NAIA is officially out of the world’s worst airport list. It also ranked 10th in the list of most improved airports by London-based Skytrax.

But how did he do it? According to Monreal, the departure of NAIA from the world’s worst

Plucked out of retirement in 2016, MIAA general manager Ed Monreal initiated measures that transformed NAIA from one of the world’s worst airports to one of the most improved in less than two years.