THOUSANDS of departing international passengers flocked to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminals Tuesday morning, mostly bound for South Korea and other Asian countries with connecting flights to United States and Canada after spending Christmas here in the country.
Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime J. Bautista, who visited terminals 1,2 and 3 on Tuesday morning, said they assigned crowd control personnel to monitor and coordinate with airline personnel at the check-in counters as immigration officials manned all counters to expedite the processing of departing passengers.
Bautista noted that travelers now experience a less stressful airport experience after the initial security checks at the airport entrance were removed as requested by passengers who used to brave long lines outside the building.
On Tuesday morning, Bautista said he saw thousands of departing passengers line up at the airline check-in counters at NAIA Terminal 1, but in a few minutes the long lines of passengers had eased.
Dana Sandoval, immigration spokesperson, said that all immigration counters are manned by immigration officers in three terminals as thousands of Overseas Filipinos and foreign tourists end Christmas vacation in the country.
Sandoval also said that about 33,000 to 35,000 passengers arrive daily in the holiday season, and they expects return to pre-pandemic volumes in the coming months after the travel restrictions fully ease.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes