THE Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) is on track to return to its pre-pandemic levels of flight activity and passenger volumes.

In comparison to January 2019 which saw 22,165 flights and 4,058,236 passengers, January 2023 recorded 22,815 flights and 3,766,546 passengers. MIAA hopes to sustain this momentum as more nations open their borders, more restrictions are lifted, and more people rediscover their renewed love of travel.

Looking back at 2022, despite a slow start to the year due to the Omicron variant and other global concerns, air travel rebounded strongly, with the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) welcoming nearly 30.9 million passengers, an increase of more than 300 percent from the 7.67 million passengers it had in 2021. More than twice as many planes have taken off and landed since 2021, jumping from 104 thousand to 221 thousand.

The year ended on a strong note, with NAIA posting its highest monthly passenger volume—1,485,968 in December 2022—since the start of the pandemic. The airport has returned to serving 65% of its pre-pandemic passenger load and 82 percent of its pre-pandemic flight movements.

MIAA attributes this significant increase to people’s renewed confidence to travel. Even though the numbers are still well below the agency’s 2019 recorded volume of 47.69 million passengers, MIAA remains optimistic that 2023 would be a busier year for NAIA. International and domestic advance bookings for 2023 have grown rapidly, according to airlines.

“We have high hopes and expectations for 2023 because of the increasing trend not only in the Philippines but in other countries as well. We believe that what we are experiencing is people’s reawakened desire to travel,” MIAA General Manager Cesar Chiong said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker and Batangas Representative Ralph Recto urged concerned agencies to field more buses to NAIA from pick-up points like malls and a carousel system that will link NAIA’s “Balkanized four terminals.”

Recto made the call in anticipation of the surge in passenger traffic in the NAIA as it is expected to breach the 50 million mark soon.

Recto said there will be a revenge trip in the country following years of pandemic where the Filipinos were deprived of going anywhere.

He said that while NAIA’s physical limitations hamper costly “land-side and air-side” improvements, there are inexpensive “low-hanging fruits like curbside improvements.”

“Kung kaya nating umutang ng P356 bilyon at hukayin ang ilalim ng lupa para sa isang subway, siguro naman mas madali ang pag-deploy ng maraming bus,” Recto said.

Recto said the government should bring affordable mass transportation at NAIA’s doors, “and in the absence of trains, buses are the next best choice.”

Recto said the MIAA posted gross revenues of P15.9 billion in 2019. The Civil Aeronautics Administration of the Philippines (CAAP), on the other hand, reported gross revenues of P10.5 during the same year. By Jester Manalastas and Jun Legaspi