WAITING GAME Passengers flying out of Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 may have to wait a while before the bag handling operation goes back to normal. —Inquirer file photo
MANILA, Philippines — Since the 20-year-old baggage handling system at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 3 started experiencing technical issues on Oct. 18, passengers flying out of Manila have complained about arriving at their destinations without their checked-in bags.
One of them was the mother of Mae (not her real name), who boarded a Cebu Pacific flight bound for Kalibo, Aklan, on Oct. 20 for the celebration of her 72nd birthday next month. Although she was traveling alone, she did not mind as the flight would take just an hour.
READ: Bag handling system at Naia T3 bogs down
However, when she got to her destination, Mae’s mother was distraught when she found out that all her checked-in bags had been left behind at Naia Terminal 3.
“It was causing her a lot of stress as she traveled alone as a senior citizen. How many days will she have to borrow clothes until her luggage is returned?” Mae complained on social media.
Another passenger, Terry, left Naia Terminal 3 on Oct. 21 for a four-day convention in Cebu City. But she learned upon landing at Mactan International Airport that her luggage containing her formal clothes, which included a Filipiniana dress and shoes for the event, was still in Manila.
Fortunately, her bags arrived later in the day even as her colleagues were already pitching in by lending her clothes and shoes to wear to the convention.
Problem to persist
More complaints, however, seem to be in store as the new private management of Naia warned the situation may persist in the coming months—especially during the expected surge in travelers for the Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 break, and the holiday season.
When the San Miguel Corp. (SMC)-led New Naia Infra Corp. (NNIC) took over the operations and maintenance of the airport last month, it said that upgrading the baggage handling system would be a priority.
In a report by InsiderPH, SMC chair and CEO Ramon Ang said that only one of the five installed baggage handling and explosive detection systems was operational at Terminal 3, the largest among the four Naia terminals.
Temporary solution
The NNIC ordered a new system in July—two months before it took over Naia operations from the government—to address the issue. But Ang noted that the problem with baggage handling might persist until July 2025, as it would take a whole year to install the new system.
To improve the situation in the meantime, the NNIC has hired extra personnel to manually sort the checked-in bags of departing passengers.
Low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific, which operates at Naia Terminal 3, said in an advisory on Wednesday noon that to date, it has “recovered 80 percent of left-behind bags, and checked bags are now being processed as usual.”
It did not provide an update on how many bags were affected although as of Tuesday, it said it was dealing with 821 pieces of luggage that had to be forwarded to their respective owners.
The airline company said that it was working with NNIC “to normalize the situation [at] the soonest time possible by increasing manpower and refining manual processes to improve the flow of baggage from check-in to loading.”
It has also set up a dedicated team to manage the situation, it added, with domestic passengers given the choice of having their bags delivered to their destination or picking them up at the airport. For international flights, a similar option was available along with delivery services for those with onward destinations.