Unlike the aging Terminal 1 and the controversial Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), Terminal 4—also known as the old Manila Domestic Terminal—has been relatively complaint-free.
“That’s the benefit of being small. It is manageable,” said the facility’s chief, Francisco Gonzales.
According to Gonzales, Terminal 4, which he prefers to call the “Summer Terminal,” is still a “hassle-free airport.”
“The terminal area is still sufficient. Our passengers can breeze in and out of the arrival area within 15 minutes,” he said.
Still, “the situation becomes scary during the summer months, or peak seasons when passenger traffic reaches as high as 8,000 [per day],” according to Gonzales.
In April 2010, Terminal 4 registered 121,954 and 121,192 departing and arriving passengers, respectively, the highest for the entire year.
“We really do great business during the summer,” said Gonzales.
“To think [that] Terminal 4 practically died after Cebu Pacific pulled out in August 2008, registering passengers of only 100 to 500 a day,” he said.
From a total of 1,380,082 passengers last year, Terminal 4 expects nearly 1.5 million passengers this year.
“The average daily flights have been increasing since July 2010. From 24, it was nearly 50 last month. In some months, the increase was over 100 percent,” Gonzales said.
He said Terminal 4 also faces the same problem as the other terminals, that is, runway congestion.
“Much as we’d want to accommodate more flights, even the Department of Transportation and Communications is encouraging other airlines to use other [domestic] airports as their base,” said Gonzales.
That is why Terminal 4 plans to increase its operating area by expanding to the nearby Cebu Pacific cargo facility, he said.
“If we do not expand, we will end up in the same situation we were in three years ago, a congested terminal with not enough seating space for passengers waiting for their flights, long queues at the security check and probably even in the comfort rooms,” Gonzales said.