Cebu Airport

✅ Trip Verified | I can't wait for the new airport to be ready for service. Cebu airport is much better organized than Manila airport even without the newest building. The service and border control are both excellent! There are only two minor issues: 1) The traffic-jam outside of the airport. 2) Almost all airports around the world will advise you not to push carts next to the carousel at the baggage claim area. Most of the airports have yellow line around the belt as well. But, not in Cebu airport. The ground crew will push the carts lying around the carousel evenly, so that it will slow down and create chaos for you to pick up your luggage.

✅ Trip Verified | There are barely any airports in the world that still charges airport fees, but this airport does! When I came to the airport, I was told that you need to pay an airport fee at 750 Philippines peso per person, but they did not accept any payment by card, only cash in local currency or in USD, but if you pay in USD, the fee becomes 16 dollars which is more than 750 PHP. There is a cash machine nearby, so I chose to pick up PHP in cash instead, but besides an extra 250PHP fee to pick up the cash from the machine, fee from your home bank, the exchange rate from the ATM was very bad, I ended up paying almost double the airport fee. So be prepared to have the cash in PHP with you when you come to the airport.

✅ Trip Verified | An excruciatingly slow and arduous process. International passengers: Be warned that you will need 750 PHP cash (or equivalent dollars) to pay international terminal fee. This fee is not included (bafflingly) in your airline ticket. If you are not carrying sufficient cash, you may be forced to use the ATM. None of the airline staff are helpful about this process and they will simply say that it is not their responsibility. Thankfully for us, we found a couple of people who were willing to give us cash as we paid their store bills using our credit card. I almost missed my flight because of this stupid process. After this, there is another slow process of security check and immigration. Even though we had a huge queue, there were only 2 counters open for immigration and security checks. It made the whole process very painful for us. As we arrived at the airport quite early, we were able to complete this process but I can easily imagine someone missing their flight if they arrive only 2 hours before departure.

✅ Verified Review | Mactan Cebu international Airport. It is my hub and departure point everytime I have a plane ticket out of my home city. The Domestic Terminal Section is pretty much straight forward. Once you get past the initial security you are at the check-in counters. If you have the unfortunate luck of arriving early and your check-in counter is still closed you'll be hard press to find seating or any lounging areas. Once you get through check-in which is a slow arduous task, you'll be in the pre departure gate which on my opinion is hopelessly at over capacity during peak hours as airlines share gates with turn around times within minuets of each other. If you're not careful you might end up boarding the wrong plane as the path leading to your ramp from the gate crisscross with arrivals and other departing flights.

Arrival: My family and I flew into this airport on the 3rd of July around 1 am and our experience with immigration here was aggravating. Considering this place is promoted for being a popular tourist destination, one would think that the airport would be more appealing and the employees more productive. The line for immigration was very long with more people joining as their plane lands. When we got there there were 2 people handling tourists with foreign passports and one for crew/Philippine passport holders. Not even 15 minutes later the female immigration agent (there was a male and a female) left. For the next 30-40 minutes the male handled the foreign passports all by himself. This was a slow process. Considering the time, this was very frustrating especially travelling with young children. I left my family in line while I went into their office to find out/inquire why there was only one agent. In the office I found 4 people, and 3 desks. The first desk in front of the door had an older man that looked like he was going through paperwork. The second desk had 2 people, a male and a female. The female was seated but laying her upper body across the desk messing with her phone while the male was seated with his feet on the desk. In the back room there was another person that was also sitting at their desk leaning over. I asked the room in general why there is only one person outside handling foreign passports when there are so many people coming through to get processed and hopefully move onto their next destination? The male with his feet on the table responded and asked me if I am a Filipino. I told him no, I am American but I was born there. He came outside with me and said no there are 2 agents. I said yes there are 2 agents but only one handling foreign passports. He asked me how many was in my party and told me to take them through the Filipino/crew line. There should be more than one person handling the flow of tourists/residents coming through especially at that time. Departure: My family and I got to the airport around 9.45 pm despite our flight being at 01.20 am. Before you leave the country you have to pay an exit fee but first must present your boarding pass. We walk over to check in and turn over our passport, and bags expecting to get our boarding passes pretty fast. 5 minutes in another agent is called, at 10 they keep handing over our passports to the agent at the next line to swipe our passports and typing something. 30 minutes later there are now 4-5 agents helping. Another agent comes to us and tells us that our kids cannot sit on the scale by counter. My husband and I are frustrated having been here waiting for over 30 minutes to get our boarding pass. Our kids were out of the way and entertained during this long, boring, frustrating process. Manager is called at 1 hr mark and soon get manual boarding pass. The problem according to this agent is despite having a valid ticket, passport and visa for South Korea, their system kept telling them to detain me for invalid info. Every station I stopped at kept detaining me because of this pass. At midnight I finally get my boarding pass. Other things wrong: Bathrooms are not clean with half inoperable. No charging stations for electronics. Chairs are stained and uncomfortable. Waiting area stinks. Smoking area is small and unventilated. Vending machines don't work very well. Dining areas are tiny with limited seats.

✅ Verified Review | Been flying out of this Airport for decades. Mactan-Cebu International airport is the 2nd busiest airport in the Philippines. First security check-in was quick enough and was done in 5 minutes tops. Check in was a breeze as well. One gripe is still the having to pay the International Departure Fee which was Php750, which was Php550 a few years back. The fees should either be part of the ticket priced to lessen the hassle for the passangers departing Internationally. Going into the second Check was kind of a chaotic ordeal, at this point Domestic and International passangers merge into one 2-3 lane area, it was chaotic when a few passangers wanted to be first in line, such a lack of discipline and manners I might say. You had to scan your boarding pass, then go to security after which was lasted for 5 minutes due to having 3-5 open machines and security lanes. Kudos to that improvement, it used to be 15 minutes minimum. Another gripe was we wanted to grab some lunch at the domestic side since it had fastfood and some better take away choices, the rude female guard stopped us and said some that we were not allowed to eat here. This was irritating as the international area was lacking in food choices! Secondly, they could have politely told us this. These people should be screened for proper etiquette in customer service. Waiting area for international passangers was big enough but for international standards it was far too small. Hopefully things would change once the new international terminal opens. This airport is still better than NAIA.

✅ Verified Review | No ability to pay by credit card for any of the exorbitant fees. For the first time ever (6+ years) I wasn't allowed to bring my power board with me, so I couldn't charge any of my devices while waiting. They kept calling it an extension cord. Stubborn bureaucracy crossed with ignorance.

✅ Verified Review | Chaos reigns at Cebu Airport - even on departure as its a battle just to get to the international drop off area by car. Once you have got inside the terminal you are again met with overcrowded areas and this was early evening. First X-ray check was pretty quick and once checked in you still have to pay this P750 departure tax which should be abolished. However, on this occasion when I got to the counter a queue had built up, and as is the norm in this country the cashier was on the phone. The other booth was closed but there was an employee there doing nothing. So why not have both desks open as a queue had quickly built up? The employee on the phone didn't care less about waiting passengers. Once through you get to have a boarding pass scanned before the next security check which again is another waste of time as your boarding pass is checked scanned before you board your flight. Second X-ray scan you have to disrobe basically. The saving grace and is still a surprise is that immigration is very swift with well trained staff being polite to departing passengers. Sadly after immigration you are hassled by staff at the duty free shopping areas which you can't avoid asking if you'd like to buy anything. Signage has not improved any since my last visit and it's just noticeable everywhere is crowded. Departure seats are cold and uninviting. Internet connection although free hardly works and kept disconnecting. Air conditioning is not up to the cooling effect with the amount of people inside the terminal sadly. Toilets dirty so use only if you really need to and they are not maintained. This airport is not a nice experience to have to go through in the modern age.

Arrivals is as chaotic as ever and has gotten worse. No air conditioning from leaving the aircraft until you get to the first health check screening point, this is a long sweltering walk if you are on one of the further gates as the flight I was on. Even in the immigration area and main baggage hall the air conditioning is truly dreadful when two flights have arrived at the same time! Immigration was efficient with what looks like a lot of young courteous personnel manning their stations so BI at least are doing something rights after many decades of poor employees. No as I did not have check in baggage I had nothing to declare but the custom organization was terrible. There was one line and everyone had to go through the red something to declare channel which was very slow considering two flights had arrived. Once you finally get past here avoid the toilets as they are filthy and with so many passengers are not even cleaned. Truly awful. When exiting arrivals you are met with total chaos of vehicles all over the place, hundreds of people and the whole place is out of control. Nothing is truly signposted, no air to breath, no safe place to cross because of all the vehicles jammed up. Arrivals is truly a stressful and awful experience at this airport right now and officials have truly forgotten this area.

✅ Verified Review | I don't mind paying departure tax at Cebu but it is very inconvenient that this is not added to the ticket costs and you have another ridiculous line. Staff not very helpful. Airport bathrooms were nice and clean. Security was very tight which is absolutely fine and in fact comforting.