Airport and airline management 101 for Filipinos
It was not too long ago when we were known around the globe to have the worst airports in the whole world. We might have improved a little but such minor improvements were all negated by the recent Xiamen Airlines mess two weeks ago. Our transport officials had been measured and were found dismally wanting. The Department of Transportation officials, led by the once-loquacious Art Tugade (what’s a San Beda lawyer doing anyway, trying to manage the country’s airports, traffic and all), and I say, without meaning any offense, this is not succeeding at all, and are just making DOTr perhaps the worst-performing government agency today.
I am not bragging but for the past three weeks, I saw for myself how US airports are being managed: San Francisco, Seattle/Tacoma, Dallas/Forth Worth, La Guardia and JFK in New York, Charlotte in Carolina, Las Vegas, Oakland, Dulles in Washington DC, and others. With due respect, on a scale of 0 to 10, airport management in the USA can be rated 9 with little room for improvement, especially La Guardia. I have also travelled even more frequently to Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, Tacloban, Bacolod, Kalibo, Caticlan, Puerto Princesa, Dumaguete, Legaspi, Laoag, and Naga. Overall, I can rate them a flat 3.5. I am not happy about it. I am even sad and angry why Tugade, after two years in office, has not made any shade of a difference. And he cannot blame PNoy, Mar, and Abaya forever. If the lawyers cannot handle it, then why not give the job to the real technical experts?
The airports in Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Jakarta can be rated somewhere between 7.5 and 8.5. But our NAIA should be a dismal 4 or 3. What are the criteria for judging? 1. The degree of ease and convenience for incoming and outgoing flight passengers, 2. Security management without insulting or burdening the travellers, 3. Discipline and honesty among airline staff in the check-in counters, in the boarding and in the handling of baggage, 4. Sufficient space and ventilation in all airport terminals, 5. Systematic and orderly boarding and movement of passengers from gate to gate, 6. Sanitation, cleanliness, and orderliness in the rest rooms, 7. Courtesy to seniors and PWD’s, pregnant women and children, 8. Managing of flight cancellations and delays, and 9. Facilities for information and communication, passenger assistance and welfare. We fail in almost all of them.
I challenge the DOTr to present to the public a complete, integrated, and people-friendly manual or protocol on all the above. Let all the travellers rate all units and let the ratings be published daily. If they cannot do their jobs well, they should start packing their bags and take a one-way flight to Timbuktu. That would be the greatest form of kindness they can offer to the Filipinos. Their continued incompetence poses a ceaseless insult and injury to the people. We certainly deserve better service.
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