With NAIA recovering 65% of its pre-pandemic passenger volume and 82% of its pre-pandemic flight movements, MIAA foresees a busier 2023.
PASAY CITY, 23 February 2023 – The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) is on track to return to its pre-pandemic levels of flight activity and passenger volumes in 2019. In comparison to January 2019, which saw 22,165 flights and 4,058,236 passengers, January 2023 recorded 22,815 flights and 3,766,546 passengers. MIAA hopes to sustain this momentum as more nations open their borders, more restrictions are lifted, and more people rediscover their renewed love of travel.
Looking back at 2022, despite a slow start to the year due to the Omicron variant and other global concerns, air travel rebounded strongly, with the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) welcoming nearly 30.9 million passengers, an increase of more than 300 percent from the 7.67 million passengers it had in 2021. More than twice as many planes have taken off and landed since 2021, jumping from 104 thousand to 221 thousand.
The year ended on a strong note, with NAIA posting its highest monthly passenger volume—
1,485,968 in December 2022—since the start of the pandemic. The airport has returned to serving 65% of its pre-pandemic passenger load and 82% of its pre-pandemic flight movements.
MIAA attributes this significant increase to people’s renewed confidence to travel. Even though the numbers are still well below the agency’s 2019 recorded volume of 47.69 million passengers, MIAA remains optimistic that 2023 would be a busier year for NAIA. International and domestic advance bookings for 2023 have grown rapidly, according to airlines.
“We have high hopes and expectations for 2023 because of the increasing trend not only in the Philippines but in other countries as well. We believe that what we are experiencing is people’s reawakened desire to travel,” MIAA General Manager Cesar Chiong said.
Chiong explained that after being isolated by the COVID-19 pandemic, people are eager to see the world again and cross items off their bucket lists that they had put off for more than two years.
MIAA is stepping up its improvement efforts in anticipation of the projected rise in flight and passenger volumes, which will have an immediate impact on customer service while also producing long-term, tangible outcomes in the near future.