NAIA? No, Thank You!

Sawadee khrap from Chiang Rai!

On my way to Thailand the immigration officer at Iloilo Airport asked me whether it was really cheaper to go here through Hong Kong than via Manila. I answered, "Yes!" Of course I knew she asked that to gauge whether my purpose to travel was really for holiday and not because I would work illegally in Hong Kong.

But, I thought of writing an article about ditching NAIA when traveling abroad.

My last exit from NAIA to an international destination was April 2015, on my way to Sydney. That last exit in 2015 was horrific! I arrived from Iloilo at around 7PM, queued for TIEZA's Travel Tax for 45-min. and queued to check-in for 2-hrs! It was at the height of Philippine summer heat and NAIA's airconditioning was set to 25C to save on electricity because there was power shortage all-over Luzon. Imagine almost 3-hrs of queueing up in a poorly airconditioned airport! The boarding gate was so far and of course NAIA has no walkalators, so basically I arrived at my boarding gate just in time to board the aircraft, all sweaty at 12MN.

Months after that incident, the "Laglag Bala" Scam gripped the nation, and it was the last straw for me, since then, I have consciously made the decision to ditch NAIA altogether when traveling abroad.

But, besides my horrific experience, there is some logic behind why I choose to board international flights from our local airports. Here are my top 5 reasons.

1. Saving on Flight Costs

Living in a city a flight away from the capital - Manila, has a disadvantage. That is the ever-present domestic flight cost whenever we travel abroad. This reality is especially painful when the ultimate destination is not directly accessible from Manila. Take Yangon, Myanmar, Penang, Malaysia, Chiang Mai, Thailand or Perth, Western Australia as examples. They will all require me to travel 2 domestic flights on top of the international flight between Philippines and the destination country.

Thankfully I live in Iloilo City which has direct flights to international travel hubs, Singapore and Hong Kong. Also, I am just 4-hrs away by bus from Kalibo, Aklan which has direct flights to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei and Incheon.

Going straight to an international travel hub like Singapore, Hong Kong or Kuala Lumpur gives me access to more destinations than what NAIA could ever offer me. This cuts flight costs to just 2 instead of at least 3 flights if the trip were via Manila.

Is it cheaper to fly to Hong Kong on this trip? I wish I could have offered the immigration officer who asked me that 2 nights ago an extended answer. Yes, it was because, I flew only 2 flights. One from Iloilo to Hong Kong and then from Hong Kong to Chiang Mai and both were on budget airlines! The trip to Chiang Mai cost me only PhP 6,000 one-way!

Three months ago, when I was buying my tickets, I did explore the Iloilo-Manila-Bangkok-Chiang Mai route, back then the estimate was, PhP 10,000 one way.

(How could you not ditch NAIA in exchange for a lay-over airport like this?) Hong Kong International Airport Terminal 1 Arrival Area

2. Faster Formalities

Anyone who has used NAIA will agree with me that queues in that airport is practically purgatory on earth! You will have to give yourself about 1.5 to 2-hrs. of queueing time, and that's during off-peak season. Purgatory become infernal when it is peak season for travel like this time! My feed got filled last week of rants from my former students going home for the holidays through NAIA.

Compare that to basically NO-queueing time in Iloilo or Kalibo Airport! Ok, maybe I am exaggerating, but in my last international travels via Iloilo or Kalibo, the queue was practically next to nothing.

Consider my experience last Sunday. I arrived 3-hrs before my flight, when I reached TIEZA counter to pay my travel tax, I was practically the only one. So I simply paid my dues, no waiting! Then at the check-in counter, again I was the only one, no waiting, got my boarding pass in a breeze. At the terminal fee counter there was a person ahead of me - yes, only one see it is in singular form. So after he was through, it was my turn already. Waiting time, 1.5 minutes! Then immigration, here I had to wait, why? I was too early, the pre-departure area hasn't been cordoned off so they could not yet accept international-bound passengers. Hahahaha, boy was I early indeed!

Gladly there were 4 of us who were early-birdies, there were seats for over 8 persons, so we were seated comfortably while waiting for the pre-departure area to be ready. When the announcement was made that we could get in already, we were already 5 waiting, but there were 4 immigration officers, so with that ratio, we all took off practically, 1 passenger 1 officer ratio. Waiting time, about 15-minutes! But that's 14.5-minutes sitting and 0.5 minutes passport stamping.

Total time from entry to the airport to pre-departure lounge, 18-minutes including the walking. I do not know if anyone will ever get something like this in NAIA at all!

Very Spacious HKIA Terminal 2 Check-in Counter Area

3. No Nightmarish Traffic

Then of course, when in NAIA, and you come from elsewhere in Manila, there is that circle in hell people nowadays call "Traffic in Manila"! I could recall TV Patrol anchors commenting some months back telling people to give it at least 6-hrs from the flight time to go to NAIA, that is longer than the flight itself from Manila to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok, seriously!

HKIA Pre-departure Area (I had to take train to get here from the Check-in counter!)

4. Cheaper Transportation to the Airport

I don't know the situation now, but back in 2015 there basically no way of getting into NAIA 1 or 3 on public transportation. A passenger just had to take the taxicab. That's going to cost a passenger at least PhP 250, depending on where he or she is going to come from.

In Iloilo, there are vans from SM City with going rate of PhP 70! In Kalibo, depending on your bargaining powers which I have none basically, going rate is PhP 100 from town centre to Airport.


5. Easier to Manage Airport

NAIA may have lots of facilities than our local airports yes, but that really is because they expect passenger to be hungry wild already after all the queueing that goes on in there! For the passenger on a budget like me, I don't do airport shopping, that is plain silly! I don't need to eat, drink or pee when waiting time from entry at airport to boarding is 2-hrs or below. So these facilities, no matter how good they sound are superfluous to me!

Also, though this is not a problem for me, I have heard stories of people getting lost in the airport and getting left behind by their flights because they could not find their boarding gates.

In a small airport like Iloilo which has only 4 boarding gates, or Kalibo which has 3 more of boarding doors than gates (wink wink), practically no one will ever get lost! By the way, Iloilo may have 4 boarding gates, but actually only 1 is for international, so no one will ever get lost!

I love the detail of this ceiling in HKIA!

Conclusion

Allegedly NAIA has made some improvements since the new administration came to power, cleaner facilities, better free wi-fi and less flight delays. But, I would still go for local airport whenever possible!