THE Department of Transportation (DOTr) shed light on the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) rating as the “world’s worst business class airport”.

Several news outfits reported on the recent study claiming that the country’s main gateway has been rated as the world’s worst business class airport.

According to some news articles, the rating was based on a study by Bounce Luggage Storage, compiled by using reviews aggregated via the blog businessclass.com and Skytrax.

Bounce Luggage Storage is a luggage storage business that operates in several airports in the United States (US) and Asia but has no operation whatsoever in the Philippines, according to DOTr.

An extensive search on the businessclass.com website showed no reviews nor ratings concerning the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

DOTr said it is also unknown when exactly the rating was done and a check with the feedback concerning the NAIA was dated 2020 as the latest, with most reviews and complaints coming from transitting international passengers who did not use the business class lounges.

According to the study, NAIA got the worst scoring for three different categories: (1) the number of destinations; (2) on-time performance; and (3) rating from Skytrax.

The transportation department said the number of destinations is dictated by and determined thru bilateral and air services negotiations. It is also important to note that NAIA is a destination airport and not a hub airport, so there are not many business class lounges and onward destinations.

Passengers using business class lounges are those passing thru for brief business trips or for stopovers to take their onward/connecting flight to their final destinations.

Airlines primarily determine their need to put up business class lounges for their customers. Business-class lounges abound in hub airports, which NAIA is not.

Likewise, it is highly implausible that the on-time performance contributed to the NAIA’s supposedly “worst” rating, said the transportation department.

To recall, during the last quarter of 2019 or before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Air Carriers Association of the Philippines (ACAP) reported to the DOTr that “the airlines’ running On-Time Performance (OTP) average was 83%” – a far cry from the previous OTP of 40% in 2016.

DOTR pointed out that the Skytrax website showed that NAIA had a “3-star rating”.

The 3-star rating is applied where staff service standards or the production facilities are “fair” or “average”.

The website states that Skytrax applies ratings between 1-Star and 5-Star for up to 800 customer-facing areas of airport products and services.

This spans 30 customer contact points from the airport website to terminal hotel quality. The rating methodology is unified and consistent for the industry, and all airports, from the largest hubs to small regional facilities, and assessed using the same base criteria.

Ratings are based on the front-line customer experience on the end-to-end journey through an airport.

In fact, DOTr said in 2018, NAIA made it to the top 10 of the “world’s most improved airports” based on the 2018 World Airport Awards, also conducted by Skytrax.

Since then, the transportation department has already undertaken more improvements in the facilities – all geared to improve a traveler’s entire passenger experience.

While the study shows unfavorable rating and unsubstantiated claims about NAIA, it cannot be denied that significant improvements have been carried out in the country’s main gateway in the past six years under the Duterte administration, said DOTr in a statement.

“Under the leadership of DOTr Secretary Art Tugade, we have stamped out longstanding issues that have tarnished the reputation of the NAIA for years,” DOTr stated further.

DOTr said it addressed issues including the infamous “laglag-bala” extortion scheme and “bukas-bagahe” or baggage pilferage.

It added, “Remarkable developments reached to improve the airport’s services, such as the rehabilitation and upgrade of the airport facilities, including its terminals and runways.”

With all the improvements already in place with more still in the pipeline, the DOTr and Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) will continue to improve the airport facilities and its services to ensure a safe, reliable, convenient, and comfortable travel experience to the air riding public, the Department pointed out. By Jun I. Legaspi