Plane fare

The new P7.9 billion Laguindingan Airport in Misamis Oriental is poised to “take off” today as it begins commercial operations. Three times larger than the old Lumbia airport in Cagayan de Oro City, it can accommodate five wide bodied aircraft at any one time and is projected to serve around 1.6 million passengers a year, making it the second busiest in Mindanao after the Davao International Airport.

Local groups led by the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry had lobbied for the postponement of the new airport’s use. It cited certain safety concerns such as the lack of an instrument landing system and other air navigation and system support facilities. However, during the test flight landings conducted last April, one of the pilots supposedly remarked that he was impressed with the new airport’s runway and that even without navigational lighting, it was still safer than Lumbia. Indeed, the latter, which is fog prone, has witnessed many a crash including the ill fated Cebu Pacific flight carrying model Ateneo law graduate Roberto “Bobby” Gana.

I liken the decision to open the new airport to that of an owner already moving into a 90-95% completed house or condominium unit. Indeed, the best way to find out and fix any problems that may crop up and in the process, hasten completion, is to actually use the facility. Of course, safety is paramount and should not be compromised. But, as earlier stated, Lumbia’s safety record is questionable as well so it was really the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines’ (CAAP) management call to determine whether to start operating the new facility.

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Checked baggage: Frequent air travellers should validate this observation. Nowadays, rarely do you find airports that follow the common sense rule of checking whether the baggage claim tag coincides with the bag being taken out. This is unfortunate because many bags (particularly the black ones) look alike. Honest mistakes aside, there can also be a motivation to effect a switch as certain bags (and its contents) are more valuable than others.

Our Ninoy Aquino International Airport used to be one of the exceptions to the lax implementation of this rule. As you left the customs area, someone would collect your baggage ticket and make sure it corresponds to the bag being brought out. Lately however, I noticed that this best practice is not being implemented. Now you can take any bag from the carousel and freely carry it out of terminals 1 and 2. So rather than influencing other airports to follow our right lead it seems we have decided to join the herd towards the wrong direction. While our airport should re-think and discontinue certain practices, I thought this was not one of them.

As mentioned, this security lapse is not unique to the Philippines. In April 1998,  James Clarence Ringley managed to pull off what was regarded as the “largest recovery of luggage at any major US airport.” On several occasions, Ringley entered the massive Dallas-Fort Worth airport in Texas and systematically stole approximately 500 bags (worth about $1 million), the contents of which were later found in various flea markets. Those travelling to the US are aware that the US federal government through the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration conducts the most stringent check-in procedures before a flight. Yet, upon disembarkation, security arrangements are left entirely up to the airports and airlines. Hence, you might say that when it comes to airport security: ingress is tight, egress is light. As admitted by United Airlines spokesman Joe Hopkins, “if we don’t have a high incidence of problems, we don’t do [baggage claim checks]… as it helps keep down the cost of air travel.”

It would seem that the government’s priority is not to prevent someone from stealing your bags but to stop a crazed fanatic from smuggling a bomb or other contraband on board the plane. However, airports, airlines and their insurance companies should take it upon themselves to devise a system that would minimize luggage theft. As for the traveller, my four centavos is that they grab their bags quickly upon landing. Also, I would recommend using easily identifiable luggage that would really ‘stand out’ from the rest as this is another deterrent for a thief to “pick” on your bag..

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Filling forms: Why is it that in filling up the immigration forms in other countries, the sequence of information provided is day, month and year (e.g., 15/6/13) while our own Philippine forms follow a month, day and year (e.g., 6/15/13) pattern? Logic seems to dictate that we should follow the system of other countries since 30 days make up one month and 12 months comprise one year. On the other hand, why is it that when prominent dates are reported in the news, the month precedes the day? For example the day two planes hit the World Trade Center in New York is historically referred to as 9/11 and not 11/9?

According to my quick research, there are three basic formats for dates: big-endian, little-endian, and middle-endian. Big-endian follows a year, month, day format (yyyy/mm/dd), little-endian follows the reverse (dd/mm/yyyy), while middle-endian uses the odd month, day, year format (mm/dd/yyyy). Some countries use the big-endian such as the People’s Republic of China, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, and Taiwan. The little-endian format is the most popular and is the standard format used by a majority of countries around the world. The middle-endian is the least popular, used only in the Philippines, Palau, Micronesia and Belize.

Perhaps the explanation for the middle-endian format is the direct-to-paper translation of the way dates are described. When giving one’s birthday, for example, most people start with the month, as in, “I was born June fifteen, nineteen seventy-three.” This would be numerically translated to “06/15/1973.” The foregoing notwithstanding, should we not change our forms to conform to international standards?

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Nuptial blessings: best wishes to long time sweethearts Chito Molina and Vilma Valiente as they exchange marital vows today in Tagaytay City.

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“When everything seems to be going against  you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”                     – Henry Ford

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