QUEZON CITY (PIA) -- President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. made a renewed commitment to improving Manila’s airport operations to ensure ease of travel and to further boost the country’s tourism sector.

In his meeting with the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) Tourism Sector Group on Thursday, April 27, the President recognized the problems in the airports such as limited spaces and insufficient technology for processing of travel documents.

“We should put a team specifically to study the technology para hindi na… to study all these proposals to see what it will take for us to be able to… The technology exists so it’s just a question of us adopting,” the President said.

He then instructed the council to “monitoring where we’re falling behind and where we’re doing right” in managing our airports.

The council recommended some “quick win” solutions which include designating a large dispatch booth with uniformed dispatchers stationed in designated areas for pickups and providing concise and clear transport options for passengers leaving the airports.

Another proposal from the group is to improve taxi information on the MIAA website, providing additional modes of payment for airport taxis, launching inter-terminal shuttle services, designating a parking area for all rent-a-car companies, and implement international standard airport signages for tourists for them to easily determine where to get taxis, car rentals, buses, or terminal transfer shuttles.

According to the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), it has been acting on PSAC’s recommendations and has established a new website, and accredited taxis to prevent passengers from booking “colorum” taxis.

Also, it is now coordinating with transport providers to accept other modes of payment (credit card payments), and procurement of additional buses to facilitate inter-terminal transport.

Moreover, to lessen the queues in immigration counters, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) is planning to procure 35 additional e-gates in 2023 and 50 more in 2024. It would also submit its request for additional plantilla positions to the budget department.

As a response to the proposal for a ‘Green Lane’ for repeat travelers, the BI also promised to study the coverage of those who will be qualified as repeat travelers.

The Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) includes industry experts and business leaders who provide technical advice to the President in six key sectors such as agriculture; digital infrastructure; healthcare; infrastructure; jobs generation; and tourism.

Meanwhile, the Manila International Airport Consortium (MIAC) composed of Aboitiz InfraCapital, Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corporation, Asia's Emerging Dragon Corporation, Alliance Global Infracorp Development, Inc., Filinvest Development Corporation, and the JG Summit Infrastructure Holdings Corporation and US-based Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) submitted an unsolicited proposal government valued at over P100 billion to the government to upgrade the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

With its proposal, MIAC expects the NAIA will be able to serve up to 62.5 million passengers per annum by 2028. This would be more than double its current capacity of 31 million passengers per annum.

No updates yet from the administration regarding this proposal. (ARB, PIA-CPSD)