By Myris Lee
Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Chief Danjun Lucas disputed the “worst business class airport” tag on the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
In the May 31 Laging Handa briefing, Lucas said Bounce, which rated NAIA 0.88/10, only operates in the United States and some parts of Asia and has no operations in the Philippines.
Lucas said the rating was “unsubstantiated.”
“Sa totoo lang po, nahiwagaan din po kami noong una, kasi iyong Bounce Luggage, it is a corporation operating in US and in some parts of Asia at wala po silang presence dito sa Pilipinas,” Lucas said.
“We did our research, nalaman namin doon sa very restricted and limited information doon sa website na, it was part of a survey doon sa mga mananakay po na nakausap nila,” he added.
Lucas also said that “it is highly implausible” that NAIA’s on-time performance contributed to the airport’s supposedly worst rating.
Lucas added that the Bounce review contradicts the Air Carriers Association of the Philippines’ report that the airlines’ running on-time performance averaged at 83% in the last quarter of 2019, higher than the 40% recorded in 2016.
“Mismong ang mga airlines po natin ang nag-report sa Department of Transportation na ang average on-time performance ng ating mga paliparan ay nasa 84%. Medyo malayo po doon sa 40% na pinagmulan natin noong 2016,” he noted.
Bounce rated NAIA based in three categories: number of destinations, on-time performance, and from the compiled reviews collected from the businessclass.com and Skytrax, a United Kingdom-based airport review blog. – gb