NAIA 3: From ‘hell’ to ‘heaven’
Once a white elephant that slept soundly in the dark, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport -Terminal 3 finally flickered into life before dawn of July 22 and accepted the first passengers of the very first flight out of it.
That was after six years of lying idle due to contract controversies and building safety concerns.
Today, three months after its opening and after a few more glitches, the NAIA 3 terminal is in business, providing passengers, as well as the airlines operating there, a reprieve from the old domestic terminal.
“This is like a heaven when we just came from hell,” says Lance Gokongwei, president of Cebu Pacific Air, which made NAIA 3 its hub for both its domestic and international operations.
The legal disputes that had kept the terminal shut for so long seemed a distant past for many passengers who were only too glad to be using the modern, spacious NAIA 3.
People who fly back to their hometowns for Christmas are likely to be relieved to find themselves no longer braving the usual overcrowded and always confusing scene they have faced yearly in the old domestic terminal . For as long as they take Cebu Pacific and PAL Express, PAL ’s budget airline, they will for sure find even a little comfort and convenience in the new terminal.
Originally built for some 13 million international passenger annually, the NAIA 3 terminal initially opened its main hall, or 20 percent of the building, for eight local flights of Cebu Pacific.
Soon after, the airline transferred its full domestic operations in August and , later, some of its international operations.
The opening of NAIA 3 transferred about 80 percent of total domestic operations at the Manila Domestic Airport, freeing up the crammed and aged facility for other airlines.
Calling the old domestic terminal an “embarrassment,” Senator Richard Gordon said “I’m sure when people arrive here, they will feel comfort, confidence, pride and safety.”
