FILE PHOTO: Ninoy Aquino International Airport. INQUIRER FILES
MANILA, Philippines — Around 140,000 to 145,000 passengers are expected to transit through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) each day in the final two days leading up to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, said Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista Friday.
Bautista said this in a chance interview after referring to December 22 and 23 as the “peak of the peak.”
“We are expecting na today and tomorrow will be the peak of the peak, we will have 140 to 145,000 passengers dito lang sa Naia ‘yan (here in Naia),” said Bautista.
The surge, said Bautista, is higher than the peak number of passengers recorded in the same period in 2019 (or before the COVID-19 pandemic) at 130,000.
“Higher na ‘yan sa pre-pandemic levels, ‘yung mga pre-pandemic nasa 130,000 lang tayo during the peak noong 2019,” he explained.
(That’s higher than pre-pandemic levels; during the pre-pandemic peak in 2019, we only had around 130,000 passengers.)
Currently available data from the Manila International Airport Authority shows that from December 1 to 20, total passenger statistics sit at 2,632,547.
This is 14.63 percent higher than the 2,296,639 passengers recorded during the same period in 2022.
December 15 to 17 so far garnered the highest number of passengers above 140,000.