Summer passenger arrivals may hit up to 12,000 daily

A Royal Brunei Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner lands at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, as a Philippine Airlines Airbus 320 taxis out of the runway. (File photo by GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — Passenger arrivals, including Filipinos from abroad, may reach up to 12,00o daily this summer, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Monday.

“During the first week of the implementation of the loosened travel restrictions, we saw a rise from around 6,000 arrivals to around 8,000 arrivals per day,” Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said in a statement.

“These figures, which are a mix of Filipinos and foreign arrivals, rose steadily through the weeks,” he added.

It reached more than 9,000 daily in just two weeks last February since the government allowed the entry of fully vaccinated foreigners from visa-free countries, Morente said.

“Now after a month, we’re seeing more than 10,000 arrivals per day,” he went on.

“This figure could reach 12,000 or more during the summer season when many foreign nationals flock [to] our tourist destinations to enjoy the tropical weather,” he said.

Immigration workers are ready to service the influx, according to Carlos Capulong, chief of the BI Port Operations Division.

“Our men are [in] full force, and we have deployed 100% of our airport personnel to conduct document inspection for arriving passengers. The e-gates are also fully operational, which would greatly lessen the processing time,” Capulong said.

“We are confident that we will be able to provide immigration services to a higher number of arriving passengers in the next few months,” he added.

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