CAB: NAIA Terminal 4 domestic flights back at full capacity

With the public regaining its confidence to travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) fully opened its Terminal 4 for domestic flights, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) said on Tuesday.

“Lahat ng flights na nandon sa Terminal 4 noong pre-pandemic ay ibabalik na sa Terminal 4 ngayon dahil nga sa pagbalik ng bilang at sigla ng ating airport operations. Naganunsyo na ang mga dating nago-operate doon,” CAB operations head Eldric Peredo said during a Laging Handa briefing.

(All the flights that operated at the Terminal 4 pre-pandemic will now return to Terminal 4 as airport operations regain their vigor. Carriers that operated there before have already announced their return.)

Peredo noted that in Terminal 4, Cebgo has now resumed 14 domestic routes, AirAsia has 11, while AirSWIFT has three.

The said terminal could accommodate three million passengers annually, he added, citing data from the Manila International Airport.

“Sa ngayon, sa bilang ng mga ruta na nandoon, natatantya natin na nasa mga 30,000 ang pasahero weekly kung mapupuno ng mga airline operators ‘yung kanilang bilang ng operations doon ngayon. Papalo ‘yan ng mga 1.5 million lang po annually, so hindi pa mare-reach ‘yung capacity ng Terminal 4,” he said.

(So far, of the number of routes out there, we estimate that there will be about 30,000 passengers weekly if the airline operators could reach their number of operations. That is only about 1.5 million annually, so the capacity of Terminal 4 will not be reached yet.)

Commercial air travel to and from Metro Manila was restricted from March 2020 and only resumed in June 2021, after the easing of the community quarantine.

The Philippines also started accepting business and leisure travelers from 157 visa-free countries on February 10, for the first time in two years since the pandemic hit.

Only fully vaccinated foreign tourists from visa-free countries are allowed entry. They should also present a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test result taken 48 hours before their trip.

Meanwhile, on April 1, the country is set to reopen its borders fully to travelers from all countries, including from visa countries, according to Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat. — DVM, GMA News