Manila Airport

The new Terminal 3 (For Cebu Pacific) is clean and well organized and it was one of the smoothest experience for me. The terminal itself is spacious and clean with lots of seating and adequate A/C. Everything from security immigration baggage claim to the check in counters and custom on the return flight went on perfectly smooth (with very short queues). The only draw back is the lacking of variety for food and gift shops.

Since I last visited Manila 2 years ago things have changed dramatically: there are now 4 terminals: Terminal 1 is for all International flights (except Philippine Airways although PAL code-share flights use Terminal 1); Terminal 2 is for Philippine Airlines only (South Wing for Domestic and North Wing for International); Terminal 3 is for all Cebu Pacific flights and Terminal 4 is the Domestic Terminal used by local domestic carriers. Because of this there is far less crowding and entry through Terminal 1 is now devoid of the heaving snaking lines of passengers standing in a non-airconditioned space which was the previous norm and is now a 5-minute wait (don't forget to find and fill in an Immigration form before you present yourself at the desk - the forms they give out on the aircraft before arrival are only for Customs and are not for Immigration) in an adequately airconditioned area. Baggage claim is still chaotic but this is true in most airports. In all airports in the Philippines your baggage stubs are matched against the baggage tags so don't throw them away. Transfer between terminals is now more organised: the shuttle mini-bus has more seats the locations of the shuttle stops are signed and the driver is helpful: the bus visits all 4 terminals although it still has to use the public roads to do so (these can be a little crowded at times). The great advantage at Terminal 1 now is that the airlines open their check-in desks very early so even if you turn up 3-4 hours before your scheduled departure you will have a working check-in crew. Facilities in Terminals 1 and 2 for eating shopping etc are now reasonable (once you are in the departure lounge) and the toilets are adequate in number and clean. What more could you ask? Security is still tight (shoes belts and watches off) but there are sufficient scanners so no snaking lines of irritable passengers worried about missing their flight.

Used NAIA Terminal 1 in and outbound late August. Inbound was ok changes in the Immigration was impressive more lines and professional officers processing arrivals quickly. Money changers inside arrival area is quite good and safe and recommend to anymore. Had family fetching us but saw a new set-up of nice looking taxis for overseas arrivals. Different story outbound cannot understand why there are limited seats in the departure area. If you come early get ready to wait uncomfortably until the check-in opens. This happens to me all the time because the traffic in Manila is unpredictable and best is to come in early. Security check is better now as it is done once entering the air side. The toilets are awful there seems to be no maintenance done and worst of all there is no place to have a decent meal.

Travelled through terminal 1. When I entered the airport we were greeted by unfriendly and rude security agents the check-in area smelled like fish and it was so old. Immigration was painfully slow with the rudest agents I've ever encountered. Duty Free was very small. The departure area was nice better than I expected. A lot of food and drinks. Overall MNL airport is okay but I think all international flights should move to the newer T3.

Having gone through NAIA terminal 1 three times since my last review about a year ago I have noticed some minor changes with the whole airport experience there most of them positive. First upon arrival the lines were visibly shorter on all 3 trips through there once between 1pm-2pm and twice between 7pm-8pm. I do not know what changes they've made but on average the time spent on queues went down by half. Secondly the time it took for me to get my luggage from the time I stepped out of the aircraft also went down drastically. I was out of the airport with my bags about 20-30 minutes after getting out of the plane which is a huge leap of improvement from previous experiences there. Departing from NAIA 1 has become easier as well. Before you couldn't get inside the terminal if you do not have a hard copy of your e- ticket. During one of my trips out of there I told the security guard by the entrance that I only had the reference number for my flight. The security officer told me that the reference number was enough and that they have been granting ticketless passengers terminal access for some time. The number of security checks inside the airport have gone down from 3 checks to 2 - once before checking in and then again after immigrations. The terminal fee (which some of the other comments below have been incorrectly referring to as "airport tax") is still 750 pesos or about 15 US dollars. The duty free shop is still a no-no with overpriced merchandise that you'd better off buy onboard your flight. The smoking area is still one of the biggest setbacks with a non-existent ventilation system and a floor area no bigger than my bedroom. The good news is that you could go upstairs to the restaurant-cafe and puff away there without buying anything. But their coffee is not that bad so I'd recommend that. I'd also suggest you try the ham and cheese sandwich. On of the saddest parts of this airport is the boarding gate and not because of the fact that your vacation is over at that point. It's those cold steel seats painted white. And there never is enough of them. And it's not just insufficient by a couple of seats - it's more like nearly half of the passengers waiting for their flight are standing up. A must-fix for the airport operators. But all things considered a one star improvement from previous experiences there.