MIAA: NAIA 2 a domestic airport by July

MANILA, Philippines — The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) is planning to convert the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 (NAIA-2) into an exclusively domestic airport by July, an official said yesterday.

MIAA senior assistant general manager Bryan Co said that based on NAIA-2’s design in the late 1990s, “it was really intended to be a domestic terminal.” The terminal started operations in 1999.

The immigration and customs areas at NAIA-2 were not part of the original plan, he added.

“So, under our scheduled terminal assignment rationalization program that we implemented starting last year… by June 16, the remaining international flights of Philippine Airlines (PAL) will be moved to Terminal 1, so by July 1, Terminal 2 will become all domestic,” Co said in Filipino.

“This will include domestic flights of the PAL, which would also include the Philippines’ AirAsia,” he added.

Co said immigration personnel to be pulled out of NAIA-2 would be deployed to NAIA Terminals 1 and 3 to address the long queues at immigration counters.

Making NAIA-2 fully domestic would make the terminal design more efficient, he added.