Don’t inconvenience Christmas travelers, transport execs told

Delayed and canceled flights of an airline company irk passengers at NAIA. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/SAM AUDREY PAJARILLO

With the expected surge in the number of travelers this Christmas season, Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has urged Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya and airport officials to hire more personnel to assist passengers especially those at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia).

“Passengers have to contend with the monstrous traffic going in and out of our airports in the Naia and they certainly don’t deserve this. That is why our airport officials need to make sure they don’t suffer more inconvenience anymore when they step into the airport. More personnel should be manning our airports especially the Naia,” Marcos said in a statement on Saturday.

The Manila International Airport Authority had stated that it was expecting passenger volume to go up by 10 percent this Christmas week from the 1.6 million arrivals and 1.4 million departures last year. This translates to at least 300,000 additional passengers.

Marcos explained that despite the maximum deployment of airport police and personnel from December 15 to January 5, this will not be enough to assist all passengers.

Marcos also pointed out that some ticketing gates are closed or do not have enough personnel even during peak hours.

It can be recalled that during the Christmas break last year, scores of passengers complained because they were not able to fly out and spend Christmas day in their desired destinations because of unmanned counters.

READ: Chaos, flight delays hound Naia

Marcos said that the number of disgruntled passengers will continue to grow if not enough airport personnel will be deployed to assist them.

“I receive numerous complaints from passengers. I myself have experienced it. And it will only get worse if our airport officials continue to ignore the desperate pleas of our passengers. The way to solve this for now is for them to hire more personnel to man the gates so that more gates will be opened and more baggage scanners may be operated to service them,” Marcos said.

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