The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) placed 199th out of 239 in the 2024 global airport ranking report released by passenger rights and flight compensation company, AirHelp.
According to the company, it combined its own extensive database and passenger insights and experiences to establish its “AirHelp Score” to rank airports from 69 countries.
From May 1, 2023, to April 30, 2024, three categories – on-time performance, customer opinion, and food and shops, were established to give fair ratings.
On-time performance: 60% of the scores came from flight arrival within 15 minutes of the published arrival time. Higher scores equate to a higher percentage of on-time flights.
Customer opinion: 20% of the score came from surveys with random airport users regarding airport staff, wait times, accessibility, and cleanliness.
Food and Shops: 20% of the score came from passengers’ ratings on airport shops and restaurants.
Doha Hamad Airport in Qatar led the list with an 8.52 score, followed by the Cape Town Airport in South Africa with 8.50, and Chubu Centrair Airport in Japan with 8.49.
Other airports that made it into the top ten were Osaka Itami Airport, Brasília–Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek Airport, Johannesburg OR Tambo Airport, Muscat Airport, Salt Lake City Airport, Belém/Val-de-Cans Airport, Tokyo Narita Airport.
Japanese airports such as Chubu Centrair Airport, Osaka Itami Airport, Tokyo Narita Airport, Nagasaki Airport, Sapporo New Chitose Airport, Hiroshima Airport, and Tokyo Haneda Airport dominated the top ten best airports in Asia.
“(We gave) precedence to on-time performance, as we believe this should outweigh the importance of service quality and food and shops,” the company said on its website.
With a 7.19 AirHelp Score, NAIA scored 7.2 in on-time performance, 6.7 in customer opinion, and 7.7 in food and shopping.
Back in 2023, it was cited that NAIA suffered from both passenger and runway congestion, according to a study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).
Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime J. Bautista, in an interview with government-owned PTV4 on July 5, acknowledged that congestion is still a pressing issue at the international airport.
““Pag pupunta ka rito sa MIA ay makikita mo na napakacongested. Mahaba ang pila, kung minsan walang maupuan, [MIA is really congested. The lines are long, and the seats are insufficient],” he said.
Mr. Bautista said that travelers using NAIA grew from 32 million to 50 million per year from.
Improvements in NAIA
As passengers continued to flock to the airport, travelers shared on social media NAIA’s faulty facilities and maintenance issues.
Mr. Bautista assured the public that preparations for the renovation are ongoing.
“As early as now nagstart na mag-order ng mga parts ang winning bidder, [As early as now, the winning bidder has already started ordering parts for the renovation,”] he said on the improvement and repair of elevators, escalators, travelator after receiving complaints online.
“By early next year, dapat makakita na tayo ng reform, ng improvement [we should already see reform and improvement].” – Almira Louise S. Martinez
