NAIA 1

I know. . I told you I'll post about boats today. . but something closer to my heart caught my interest this morning. .


It was the news about Ninoy Aquino International Airport getting a facelift for a billion budget!!! Wow!
Photos here of NAIA were taken last month during my departure to Singapore. Before this, the last time I was here at terminal 1 was two years ago ( it was onto my Shanghai trip). In between trip departures/arrivals were all either at terminal 2 or terminal 3.

So sad to see how NAIA 1 looked so awfully old and abused. For someone like me who used to work here decade(s?) ago and for sentimental fact that it was my first ever office (yap, my first job was here. .was so fresh from college), I feel bad to see how the place looks so deteriorated compared to my years then. During that time, working inside NAIA was a privilege and physically one of the most comfortable places to work. It was even considered as one of the most modern airports (if not the one) in Asia that time.

Today, if you were to talk about Manila, the usual rants would be about NAIA 1 and how the worst it is.


 
No longer an employee of this establishment, as a passenger myself, I couldn't less agree. I frequent airports and don't mind flying on budget airlines. But last month at NAIA 1, going down to the boarding  gate area of  Jetstar, with my luggage hand carried, I had to walk down the stairs on foot without elevator/travelator/skylator. The boarding gate area was a shame even to our local domestic airports.

It is said that an airport gives first impressions of a country. With our old NAIA, it's like we are giving it away, no marketing, no tourism, no pr. . all out in one first step entering our country. It's like saying affront : "hey foreign visitors welcome, we are nothing but a poor third world country". 

I always thought that our terminals 2 & 3 are a lot better. .

and personally thought that they should be the gates provided for foreign airlines rather than the other way around. But ofcourse, there were political issues tucked inside of which details I'm not well informed.



Anyway, it's a happy news that NAIA is about to undergo a facelift with a target to finish at the end of next year.