Airport employees now allowed to greet passengers ‘Merry Christmas’

MANILA—Unlike previous years, airport employees are no longer prohibited from greeting passengers “Merry Christmas.”

At the approach of the Christmas season during the past few years, the Manila International Airport Authority would issue a memorandum to all airport employees forbidding them to extend holiday greetings to incoming or outgoing passengers lest these be misconstrued as soliciting tips or presents.

“For the MIAA employees, there will be no memorandum,” MIAA General Manager Jose Angel Honrado said in a text message on Tuesday. He said the airport authority does not prohibit its workers from greeting arriving and departing passengers “Merry Christmas.”

Airport employees are not allowed to ask for money from passengers and but many Filipinos use season’s greetings as a way of soliciting gifts, and some can be persistent and downright irritating.

“Saying greetings is part of the Christmas tradition but I will caution (employees) against making an impression that we are asking for something,” Honrado said.

He said other government agencies at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, such as the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Customs, free to implement their own policy on Christmas greetings.

“For other agencies, it is up to their better judgment,” he said.