Ninoy Aquino International Airport — Local services in Pasay

NAIA is hands down one of the worst airports I’ve ever been to. From start to finish, it feels like the whole place is stuck in the past, poorly managed, and completely unprepared to handle the volume of passengers that come through. The issues start as soon as you enter the terminal. The lines at immigration are painfully long, and there’s no clear direction or organization. You’re left standing around, hoping that the line moves faster, but no luck. The security process is no better. It feels like there’s no coordination, and you spend a lot of time waiting for little to no reason.

Then comes baggage claim. Don’t even get me started. It’s ridiculously slow. It feels like they’re purposefully making you wait for your bags to come out. After a long flight, the last thing you want is to be stuck in a crowded area for what seems like forever, just watching a conveyor belt go by at a snail’s pace. You end up feeling like you’re the last person to get their luggage, and if you’re unlucky, your bag might even be one of the last ones left on the carousel.

Once you finally get your bags, you think you’re done, but that’s when the real mess begins. The transportation situation outside the terminal is pure chaos. The taxi queues are long and unorganized, making it feel like you’re waiting for an eternity just to get in a car. Even worse, the Grab ride pickups are a nightmare. There’s no proper lane or designated area for passengers to wait for their rides. Drivers get confused, passengers get frustrated, and everything just turns into a disorganized free-for-all. It’s clear that there’s no communication between the airport and the transportation services, and it creates an unnecessarily stressful situation that could be easily avoided with proper planning.

What’s worse is that there’s zero effort to improve the experience. The airport feels outdated, with facilities that are either too small or poorly maintained. The air-conditioning is often either too cold or not cold enough, and you end up feeling uncomfortable the entire time you’re there. And don’t even try to find a charging station—good luck. There are barely any outlets available, and when you do find one, it’s usually occupied by someone who’s camping there for hours. It’s clear that the airport is not equipped to handle the volume of travelers it serves.

And let’s talk about cleanliness. While some areas are okay, there’s a noticeable lack of maintenance in certain spots. The restrooms are often dirty, the floors sometimes look neglected, and trash bins are overflowing. It’s not the kind of environment you want to spend hours in, especially if you’re coming or going on a long international flight. It gives the impression that no one is taking responsibility for maintaining a clean, efficient, and pleasant space.

NAIA is a textbook example of poor infrastructure and mismanagement. It’s beyond time for an overhaul, but it seems like the powers that be are either too complacent or completely indifferent to the issues. Traveling through NAIA is an unnecessarily stressful and frustrating experience, and I honestly wouldn’t wish it on anyone. If you have any other option for flying in or out of Manila, take it. NAIA is a mess, and it needs major improvements—starting with better crowd control, faster processes, clearer directions, and overall better service. Until that happens, this place is a major...

The worst airport I've encountered. Everything is disorganized, the people who work here are unhelpful, rude and 3rd world behavior in every manner. I found this to be a disgusting airport in general. 'Can you tell where the restroom is'? Doesn't look at you, says disingenuously 'Outside'. I found it down the hall instead. On the conveyor belt, I retrieve my luggage and discover they broke the lock to look into my compartments of my bag. Hi, 'what can I do about'? Officer shrugs. We stand patiently in line, locals cut through to the side and start talking to the desk agents out of turn and then more jump in to the front from the side. Hey excuse me, that group just... the worker just ignores you and walks by. Getting a sim card, the guard stands in middle of the path trying to lord over everyone with his shoulders square daring people to bump into him to harass them. At the security line: 'You can't go through, go to immigration', where's immigration? down there. down where?, I search for it. Immigration: 'we need extra money you overstayed a day', no I have letter from immigration that says I can stay til end of month, well they gave you one day short, 'wait they what?!' - you must pay for an entire 30 days more - but it was just one day - sorry, we can't charge per day, but the entire next 30 days. Go over there, go get form. Go over there and pay for it, first go over there and get the passport, now go back over to pay for it. I have a card, we only accept cash. Wheres the atm? around the corner. There's no ATM around the corner. Hi, where's the ATM? It's at C station. I get to C station, hi is an ATM near here, do you know where it is? It's down the hall. Where down the hall? Search for it. At the extreme end of hall, I discover the ATMs. Whack a mole time: 3 ATMs don't accept foreign card after going through all their choices, default, current, foreign visa, etc, this process cannot be made, take your card, 1 atm finally works. Walk all the way back across to immigration.. Anyhow I could go on and on, I have about 10 more different encounters which I won't bother writing all of the rest here from women entering men's bathrooms and hanging out watching them pee to female cleaners complaining why I'm in the men's bathroom (a different one) when she wants to go in and clean it, but every aspect of this airport and the people who work there should be thrown into a bottomless pit. This isn't just one of the worst airports I've been to, but one of the worst places I've ever encountered in general.

Edit: I forgot, let me add one more encounter, which this time it wasn't me but another person who was in front of me at the food hall. She asks the woman behind the counter for a napkin, she grabs an entire paper towel and puts it on her tray. The same woman says she wants her receipt. The woman behind the counter grabs all the receipts from the cash register and tosses it on her food on the tray and tells her to...

i have travelled a lot and NAIA airport is hands down my least favourite due to a variety of reasons. compared to many other airports, it is absurd in so many ways.

only the ones flying may enter the airport. what this means is that anyone without a ticket cannot physically enter terminal 3 and so all goodbyes have to be said and done outside. get there a bit early because youre worried about traffic but want sufficient time to say goodbye to loved ones? tough luck. you either separate and check in or you sit outside in the heat for those moments. sucks for all parties involved.

the check in lines. not only do the queues move excruciatingly slow but they also do checked bag searches! we're forced to open our luggages prior to checking them in for an officer to touch and search. i for one do not appreciate having my items touched. if required, i am happy to move items out of the way for them to see but do not like having my items touched as that is a security risk on my end of something being planted or contaminated.

despite being a tourist, i felt like a criminal due to the treatment of security and immigration. i had gotten a visa extension through all the proper means and had all the paperwork and yet it seems like the communication with the immigratiob bureau and airport immigration staff were lacking. i was able to fly out in the end but was questioned on validity due to staff not being aware that certain procedures had changed or cycled back in.

water. going through security with no liquids is understandable. there are taps we can use to fill up our bottles and stores where we can buy water at duty free. HOWEVER, i have flown out of NAIA on 3 occasions with 3 separate airlines and they all dont let you board with a water bottle!! one that was already cleared at customs. so if you buy water before boarding? tough luck, drink it now or throw it out. you guys are the only airport I have ever been to that does this.

there at 16 gates at terminal 3. the gate changes are last minute and sudden. i had come to my gate about 5 minutes before boarding time and noticed there was a small piece of paper by the desk at the front saying there was a change. thats it! no further communication. this is apparently very common at NAIA.

before boarding, we enter another queue for carry on baggage checks and a pat down. again the cry is shuffling through my bags and touching all of my items. this is where we are forced to forfeit our water a final time before boarding.

there are many more complaints i have about this airport such as air conditioning failures, staff hogging air conditionings, lack of seats, large open unused areas, forcing to take out ipads and laptops at security but no section to designated to pack things up again so we just do it on the floor.

overall 0/10...