Ninoy Aquino International Airport
NAIA redirects to this page. For other meanings see NAIA (disambiguation).
The Ninoy Aquino International Airport or NAIA is the international airport that serves Manila, in the Philippines, and its surrounding metropolitan area. It is the main international gateway of the country. Its main alternate airports are both Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Angeles City and Mactan-Cebu International Airport in Lapu-Lapu City, Metro Cebu.
It is located along the border between Pasay City and Parañaque City in Metro Manila. It is about 7 kilometers south of the country's capital Manila, and southwest of Makati City's Central Business District.
The airport is managed by the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), a branch of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).The original airport that served Manila, the Manila International Air Terminal, was opened in July 1937 on Nielson Field, located in what is now the central business district of Makati. In 1948, the airport was moved to its current site adjacent to the Villamor Airbase, which was then called Nichols Field. The original structure was built on what is now the site of the NAIA-2. In 1981, a new structure was built after a fire damaged the old terminal building, and this new structure is what is now NAIA-1. The new terminal was capable of handling more passengers than the old terminal. Previously named Manila International Airport, it was later renamed to its present name after the EDSA Revolution, in honor of Benigno Aquino Jr., whose nickname was Ninoy. Ninoy was the husband of former president Corazon Aquino, and the opposition senator who was assassinated at the airport shortly after he arrived in the country following his political exile in Massachusetts, United States.
Plans for a new terminal were conceived in 1989, when the Department of Transportation and Communications commissioned Aéroports de Paris to do a study to expand the Ninoy Aquino International Airport's capacity. The recommendation was to build two new terminals, and so NAIA-2 and NAIA-3 were built in the succeeding years.
It is planned that when the airport reaches full capacity in 2015 as predicted, all of its international, domestic and cargo operations will move to the much bigger, state-of-the-art Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Pampanga. Terminal 3 will be converted into a shopping mall and all of the other infrastructures e.g. runways, taxiways, Terminals 1 and 2 will be demolished and converted into a residential and commercial area.The following airlines serve Ninoy Aquino International Airport (as of February 2006):Terminal 1This is currently the main international terminal. It has 18 airbridges and services 27 airlines (as of July 2006). This terminal will (or might) be replaced by Terminal 3, if Terminal 3 ever indeed opens. For now, nearly all international flights are resigned to using the old and crowded Terminal 1. Compared to international terminals in other Asian countries, Terminal 1 consistently ranks at the bottom, with limited and outdated facilities, poor passenger comfort, and the facility long ago exceeded its design capacity. Extremely long waits are common everywhere from passenger check-in, through a crowded and stuffy immigration area, and on toward the gates areas which sometimes do not have enough seating for passengers.
* Air Macau (Macau)
* Air Niugini (Port Moresby)
* Asiana Airlines (Busan, Seoul-Incheon)
* Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong)
* Cebu Pacific (Hong Kong, Singapore (from August 31, 2006), Seoul-Incheon)
* China Airlines (Kaohsiung, Taipei-Chiang Kai Shek)
* China Southern Airlines (Beijing, Guangzhou, Xiamen)
* Continental Airlines
** Continental Airlines operated by Continental Micronesia (Guam, Koror, Saipan)
* Emirates (Dubai)
* Etihad Airways (Abu Dhabi)
* EVA Air (Taipei-Chiang Kai Shek)
* Gulf Air (Bahrain, Muscat)
* Japan Airlines (Nagoya)
** JALways (Tokyo-Narita)
* Jetstar Asia Airways (Singapore)
* KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Amsterdam)
* Korean Air (Seoul-Incheon)
* Kuwait Airways (Bangkok, Kuwait)
* Lufthansa (Frankfurt, Guangzhou)
* Malaysia Airlines (Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur)
* Northwest Airlines (Detroit, Minneapolis/St.Paul, Nagoya, Tokyo-Narita)
* Qantas (Brisbane, Sydney)
* Qatar Airways (Doha)
* Royal Brunei Airlines (Bandar Seri Begawan)
* Saudi Arabian Airlines (Dammam, Jeddah, Riyadh)
* Singapore Airlines (Singapore)
* Thai Airways International (Bangkok, Osaka-Kansai)Terminal 2 "Centennial Terminal"This terminal is used by Philippine Airlines and its sister company Air Philippines It is divided into 2 wings the North Wing which handles domestic flights and the South Wing which handles international flights. It currently has 12 airbridges.
*North Wing
**Air Philippines (Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Dumaguete, General Santos, Iloilo, Legazpi, Puerto Princesa, Tagueragao, Zamboanga)
**Philippine Airlines (Bacolod, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Cotobato City, Davao, Dipolog, General Santos, Iloilo, Kalibo, Laoag, Legazpi, Naga, Puerto Princesa, Roxas City, Tacloban, Tagbilaran, Zamboanga)
*South Wing
**Philippine Airlines (Bangkok, Beijing, Busan, Fukuoka, Guam, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Jakarta, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Nagoya, Okinawa, Osaka-Kansai, San Francisco, Seoul-Incheon, Shanghai-Pudong, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei-Chiang Kai Shek, Tokyo-Narita, Vancouver, Xiamen)Terminal 3The third terminal, although completed and previously scheduled to open in 2002, has yet to be used. Recently, it was scheduled for a "soft launch" on March 31, 2006, but the plan was put off after a section of the arrivals area ceiling collapsed. It is currently slated to open at the earliest in mid-2007, when it will take over all of the operations of Terminal 1 and the Manila Domestic Passenger Terminal. It has 28 airbridges, 20 contact and 8 non-contact, and can service 28 aircraft all at once.
The construction of the this terminal has been surrounded by much controversy over the actions of the Philippine government. It is, in fact, these actions and allegations that have led to the great delay of its opening.
The original proposal for the construction of a third terminal was proposed by Asia's Emerging Dragon Corporation (AEDP). AEDP eventually lost the bid to PairCargo and its partner Fraport AG of Germany, who went on to begin construction of the terminal under the administration of Joseph Estrada. While the original agreement was one in which PairCargo and Fraport AG would operate the airport for several years after its construction, followed by a handing over of the terminal to the Philippine Government, the government offered to buy out Fraport AG for $400 million, to which Fraport agreed.
However, before the terminal could be fully completed, then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, calling the contract "onerous," formed a committee to evaluate the agreement to buy out Fraport AG. It is this action that has sparked the most controversy, the vast majority of opinions being that the committee was a formality and served nothing more than to allow the government to avoid keeping its end of the bargain, to which there is more controversy over whether the government had the $400 million promised to begin with.
In a highly suspect decision, the Philippine supreme court found the contract with Fraport AG "null and void," essentially obtaining the terminal for the meager cost of completing construction, which had been close to finished. Incidentally, armed forced were already in place to secure the site before a verdict had been reached, leading people to speculate that the decision had been made from the start. | The Manila Domestic Passenger Terminal |
Manila Domestic Passenger TerminalThis terminals is host to all inter-Philippine or domestic airlines. It has no airbridges but uses movable stairways. This terminal will (or might) be replaced by Terminal 3.
* Asian Spirit (Baguio, Basco, Busuanga, Calbayog, Catarman, Caticlan, Davao, Laoag, Malay, Masbate, Pagadian (seasonal), San Jose (Antique), Surigao, Virac)
* Cebu Pacific (Bacolod, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Cotabato City, Davao, Dipolog, Dumaguete, Iloilo, Kalibo, Laoag, Legazpi (from August 17, 2006), Puerto Princesa, Roxas City, Tacloban, Tagbilaran, Zamboanga City)
* Corporate Air (Malay)
* Interisland Airlines (Caticlan, Tablas)
* South East Asian Airlines (Angeles, Basco (seasonal), Boracay, Busuanga, El Nido, Malay, Taytay)Charter airlines*South East Asian Airlines (Baler)Former airlinesThe following airlines previously served Ninoy Aquino International Airport:International Cargo TerminalThe following cargo airlines serve Ninoy Aquino International Airport:Note: Philippine carriers use different hangars for their cargo services, whether domestic or international.RunwaysNAIA has a primary runway (3,737 m) running at 061°/241° (designated as Runway 06/24) and a secondary runway (2,258 m) running at 136°/316° (designated as Runway 13/31).TerminalsNAIA has two operational international terminals, with the third one scheduled to open by March 2006, and a separate domestic terminal.
The first terminal, NAIA-1, is the original terminal and was constructed in 1981. The 67,000 square meter terminal was designed by Filipino architect Leandro V. Locsin and has a design capacity of 4.5 million passengers per year. It currently serves all non-Philippine Airlines international flights. The terminal reached capacity in 1991 and has been over capacity ever since and is now crowded and with few modern comforts or facilities.
The second terminal, NAIA-2, was finished in 1998 and is named the Centennial Terminal since 1998 was the centennial year of the declaration of Philippine independence. The 75,000 square meter terminal was originally designed by Aéroports de Paris to be a domestic terminal, but the design was later modified to accommodate international flights. It has a capacity of 2.5 million passengers per year in its international wing and 5 million in its domestic wing, which later will expand to nine million passengers yearly. Terminal 2 is the home of Philippine Airlines and is used for both its domestic and international flights. It has the most flights out of all the NAIA terminals.
The third, much larger terminal, NAIA-3, was approved for construction in 1997 and the structure was mostly completed several years ago and was originally schedule to open in 2002. The modern US$640 million, 189,000 square meter facility was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) to have a capacity of 13 million passengers per year. However, a legal dispute between the government of the Philippines and the project's main contractor, PIATCO, over the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract, continues to delay final completion and opening of the terminal. On December 2004, the Philippine Government expropriated the terminal project from PIATCO without compensation through an order of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC). The terminal has yet to become operational. Having apparently lost a considerable investment through manipulation by the government of the Philippines, PIATCO (and its German partner Fraport) have continuing litigations in international court to recover a fair settlement. The case remains under litigation, with Fraport filing an arbitration case with the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes and demanding compensation of 465 million dollars to recover their investment. Although a "test run" was scheduled for Terminal 3 was to take place on April 1 2006, a ceiling collapse occurred on March 27 2006. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered an investigation into the collapse and sabotage was not ruled out. Engineers at the site of the collapse did not allow journalists to take photographs. The test run for Terminal 3 has been postponed indefinitely pending the results of the investigation and the inspection of the airport terminal.
In September of 2005 Manila International Airport Authority awarded a P26 million contract to Ayala Property Management Corp to manage and maintain Terminals 2 and 3 as well as act as an advisor for the placement of commercial services within the 2 terminals
The Domestic Terminal on the old Airport Road was built in 1948 and handles all domestic air traffic, excluding Philippine Airlines and its sister company Air Philippines. Currently, the terminal is composed of two single-story buildings and serves the domestic flights of other local carriers, which are Cebu Pacific, Asian Spirit, South East Asian Airlines, Interisland Airlines and Corporate Air.Other structuresThe airport also serves as a gateway facility of the logistics company DHL, and hosts the aircraft repair and maintenance facilities of German firm Lufthansa Technik AG, a division of Lufthansa.Taxi service is available to NAIA from all points of Metro Manila. Also, jeepney and bus routes are also available to the airport. Both forms of transportation connect all three NAIA terminals as well.
The airport is also connected to the Light Rail Transit line 1 (LRT-1) by a two-kilometer taxi ride to Baclaran station.*Nichols Field
*Villamor Air Base* Manila International Airport
* Manila International Airport Authority
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