Quote:
Originally Posted by Swisshansa10
I arrive in MNL in 2003 and left in mid 2006. During this period of three and a half year it opened or nearly opened many a times. Some airlines were also alloted space and made arrangements to design their offices. But nothing happened. I also remember before a soft opening with 5J, they put up a sham of roof collapse and deferred the opening.
Of course, PR has no reason to move from Centennial to T3 - what could motivate them to move from fully dedicated terminal to share their space with others.
NAIA3 is doomed to stay closed |
what could motivate
PR to migrate...
1) lack of expansion at centennial - it only has 7 domestic gates, only two of which can accommodate widebodies; and 5 international gates. take note that airphils and PAL express now share the terminal.
have you ever experienced T2 at peak hours? zoo is an understatement.
> several flights are parked at remote gates
> immigration arrival lines stretch from the counters all the way to the arrival gate (and i am not exaggerating).
> immigration departure lines at both (!) ends of the terminal could barely handle the semi-peak morning hours with several departures a few minutes delayed due to held up passengers.
> there are only TWO (!!!) carousels for baggage claim.
at 4AM, expect the arrival of the flights from SFO, LAX, LAS/YVR, SYD/MEL, ICN, and sometimes the overflow flight from LAX/SFO. yes, only TWO carousels.
took me two hours from gate to customs the moment i deplaned from my SFO flight.
spent most of it queueing at immigrations and at baggage relcaim, while sweating.
and i am not going to enumerate the flights that leave at lunchtime - the super peak hours! and oh, they will be adding six 77Ws in the coming three years, btw.
2) connectivity with other carriers - both the domestic and international of PAL will migrate together; they have code-shares with EK, EY, GF, QR, BI, MH, and soon KL*. currently, there is a courtesy shuttle operating between T1 and centennial.
*yes,
PR is negotiating a codeshare with MNL's lone european carrier, as a stepping stone to start their own ops to euroland.
3) having both domestic and international ops, affiliate airphils, subsidiary PALexpress, plus codeshare partners, then T3 would have become their new exclusive terminal, only bigger.
what could scare them...
1) lack of facilities (the gov't is still sourcing aircons, tv monitors, and all the basic airport equipment)
2) crumbling terminal. some of the jetways are propped up yet never been used! some ceiling panels are collapsing.