By Christine Fabro
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Thursday, June 8, explained that reported overcrowding at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 is due to several factors, including recent terminal reassignments and bad weather.
“[These] long queues of passengers could not be avoided due to many factors, foremost of which is the recent transfer of several airlines from NAIA 1 to NAIA 3 that resulted from the impending shutdown of international flight operations at NAIA 2,” Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said in a statement.
Tansingco also attributed the congestion problem at NAIA 3 to other factors, such as limited space, flight delays and diversions caused by bad weather, and frequent declaration of lighting alerts.
He noted that such factors resulted in simultaneous disembarkation of passengers from affected flights.
According to Tansingco, immigration booths in NAIA 3 are “always fully manned as the bureau has already beefed up the number of BI officers deployed at the premiere port.”
“We are constantly coordinating our efforts with the Manila International Airport Authority in seeking the best solution to address this perennial problem of overcrowding in our immigration areas at the NAIA,” the BI chief added.
To date, the bureau has installed additional BI counters and expanded the space of its departure area. –ag
