Yamato Bakery's Cronuts + PNoy + NAIA T3

All Saints day and All Souls day (Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 respectively) are days that  people fluctuate to different terminals to go back to their respective province and greatly commemorate the dead relatives.

Greatly commemorate. It's because here in PH where relatives sleep overnight at the cemetery, you can hardly cross the other side of the cemetery due to volume of people. It is also the time where relatives have their family reunion and of course prepare food.

My Dad and I agreed to meet at my office around 1:00 pm to go to NAIA T3 to catch a 5pm flight. Traffic in Manila is the worst! We left Makati at around 1:30 and drive along EDSA where we find ourselves stuck in traffic. I was calm at that time because we had a lot of time to spare, I slept at the car all the way trough the traffic. I woke up 3:30pm only to find out that our car is not allowed to enter since parking is full and my dad (diabetic, impatient , and maliglaig) is going hyper, I told him that I'll walk and proceed to check-in our bags and he just wait for a few minutes so he can enter the parking lot.

Thank God he was able to get a parking slot (park n fly). Luckily, increase in parking fee is not yet in effect at that time (Read this: Worlds worst airport strikes again one thousand peso parking tickets at NAIA)

I told  my dad the new rate scheme and both of us agreed to just take the cab going to NAIA on feb 2014 going to Hong Kong. I don't mind since our house is a 20 min. ride going to the airport via C5 and our departure time is at 5am, so no worries.

Amazingly, there's no queue of line (Dec. 31  is our departure date. We didn't want to travel on Nov 1 with the exodus of people) at the check-in counters and check-in of bags is done within 10 min. Thank you web-check in. 

As I passed trough the final security, I realized that it only took me 15 min from baggage check-in to final security. No more manual check-in and terminal fee payment. Check in time is cut by half, saved some time for coffee and plane spotting. 

I was ecstatic to have rows of chair for myself.

Then I saw a commotion. I hurriedly went to Cafe France and left my bag to my dad.

Dept. of Transportation and Communication Sec. Jun Abaya ( I'm not thrilled to see him because I find him too inefficient to become a transportation secretary. A transportation secretary should be firm and work fast, transportation is a big contributor to the economy, and the DOTC took a lot of months just to bid out the renovation of Mactan-Cebu International airport) 

President Noynoy Aquino.

Wide! 50% of the travelling people I saw was foreigners.

Partial closure of NAIA 1 when rehab begins

Partial closure of NAIA 1 when rehab begins

MANILA, Philippines – Portions of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 (NAIA 1) will be closed when the terminal undergoes major rehabilitation starting December, according to Transportation secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya.

"There will be parts of the airport to be shut down to start the work, but at least, the airport is not totally shut down," Abaya said.

Abaya explained that closing some parts of the terminal is necessary to ensure that the rehabilitation project will be completed by November 2014, in time for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ministerial meetings. The Philippines will host the APEC Summit in 2015.

“Clearly the main objective is to get NAIA 1 rehabilitated for APEC so if convenience of everybody will always be our parameter, we cannot move forward. So we have to swallow the bitter pill to get things moving forward, and improve,” he added.

The government had long planned to renovate NAIA 1, which was tagged again as the world's worst airport by visitors of travel website The Guide to Sleeping in Airports. (READ: What's the real score in NAIA 1 project).

World-renowned designer Kenneth Cobonpue and his team, and architecture firm Leandro V. Locsin and Associates were tapped by government to give the old and congested terminal a facelift. (READ: Rivals to partners: Cobonpue, Locsin to make over NAIA-1)

NAIA 1 has been accommodating 8 million passengers a year, way higher than its intended capacity of 4.5 million.

Transfer to NAIA 3

The rehabilitation of NAIA 1 complements the upgrade of NAIA 3, Abaya stressed.

The transportation secretary explained some operations in Terminal 1 will be transferred to Terminal 3 in phases.

"Hopefully, this will work complementarily because once we get parts of [Terminal 3] operational, we'll transfer some operations so NAIA 1's load will be lightened," he said.

Upgrade of NAIA 3 starts this month. Japanese contractor Takenaka Corporation was given until July 2014 to complete civil works for the 182,500-square meter terminal.

Only half of Terminal 3 has been considered structurally safe since it partially opened in 2008.

Takenaka's work contract covers "23 systems," which include flight information display, baggage handling and reconciliation, fire alarm and protection, and passenger boarding bridges, among others. (READ: Aquino on NAIA 3 delays: Pls bear with me) – Rappler.com

Open Letter to Gen. Jose Angel Honrado (Ret) from The Naia Guy

Open Letter to Gen. Honrado from The NAIAguy (@naiaguy)

June 28, 2013

Gen. Jose Angel Honrado (Ret)
General Manager
Manila International Airport Authority
Pasay City, Philippines

Dearest fellow aviator,

Hope this letter finds you well. It seems that you missed to reply on two email messages I sent to you regarding:

http://www.naiaguy.info/2013/01/22/dear-gen-honrado-issues-with-planespotters-again/
http://www.naiaguy.info/2012/11/13/an-open-letter-to-the-miaa-general-manager-planespotting/
I tend to believe that you had overlooked to send me your responses on those messages of mine (hoping that they were not misplaced nor intentionally discarded by your loyal assistants).

It has came to my attention that some MIAA personnel (particularly your IID and AGM-SES/APD people) again are “harassing” members of the Philippine Planespotters Group (PPSG), who often times watch planes land and fly out of Manila via the NAIA at the end of Runway 06/24 (outside of the airport’s perimeter fence; along the Multinational Avenue — a public domain).

Members of the PPSG are hobbyists, who are armed with just digital cameras (from the simple cellphone camera, to the point-and-shoot ones, and to a certain extent — dSLR’s for some). Did I mentioned that this group’s membership include our fellow aviators, aeronatutical engineers, private pilots, and even students from all over the country? There are even some local tourists who take time and exerts a little bit of effort going to that spot along Multinational Avenue just to take a shot or two of their favorite airlines before flying back to their hometowns.

I do not see the point of your security personnel shooing PPSG members away from the fence (which is already outside of the airport; along the public road called Multinational Avenue) to the extent of “inviting” them for questioning (by means of sending out a government vehicle to fetch them from the Multinational Avenue to the IID Office at the Basement of the NAIA Terminal 1) to the Intelligence and Investigation Department office of the airport for questioning.

In your response letter to me dated June 08, 2012 and if I may quote:

“There is no existing airport security regulation which prohibits plane spotters from taking pictures of airplanes from outside the NAIA perimeter fence. These plane spotters are not considered threats to airport security for as long as they keep their activities outside the restricted airside area.”

Will appreciate if you can enlighten and explain to your IID personnel what you meant of PPSG or  planespotters, in general being NOT CONSIDERED as THREATS to airport security, since they are outside of the airside restricted area. Better, if you can define what is inside ando/or outside of the airside restricted area.

You see, PPSG members are here to help us promote a safer Philippine aviation industry. Not to mention that they are also contributing to the promotion of local tourism — with some of the photos taken by PPSG members being used by the local and foreign media. Also, in the event of an accident (knock on wood), who knows … maybe one of the PPSG members were able to capture something that may be of great value during such incident investigation?

Appreciate to receive your response the soonest.

PS: Let me remind you of RA9485 (Section 8B: All requests submitted shall be acted upon by the assigned officer or employee during the period stated in the Citizen’s Charter which shall not be longer than five (05) working days …”


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