THE Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) recorded its highest monthly passenger traffic on record in January 2026, extending the momentum from its strongest year to date, according to the New NAIA Infra Corp. (NNIC), the private operator of NAIA.
NNIC general manager Lito Alvarez said that a total of 4.96 million passengers passed through the airport during the month, exceeding the 4.86 million recorded in December 2025 and making January the busiest month in the airport’s history.
According to Alvarez, passenger traffic followed a strong holiday travel period from December 20 to January 4, when NAIA served nearly 2.6 million passengers across all terminals, noting that travel peaked on January 4, with 180,089 passengers passing through the airport — the highest single-day passenger volume recorded so far.
He added that international travel continued to drive growth, with 2.42 million international passengers recorded in January, up 8.16% from a year earlier and the highest monthly international volume in NAIA’s history.
Domestic passenger traffic reached 2.54 million, an increase of 3.16% year-on-year.
NNIC President Ramon S. Ang meanwhile stated that despite the higher passenger volumes during both the holiday peak and the rest of the month, airport operations remained stable, supported by operational improvements introduced over the past year, which included terminal upgrades, the rollout of biometric immigration e-gates and biometric passenger processing systems, as well as closer coordination among airlines, government agencies and airport service providers to manage queues, flights and passenger flow.
NAIA, Ang said, serves as the Philippines’ primary aviation hub, handling domestic and international operations and under the public-private partnership, NNIC is responsible for the airport’s operations, maintenance and modernization, while ownership remains with the government.
As of January 2026, NNIC has remitted P62.7 billion to the national government since taking over NAIA operations in September 2024, in line with the terms of the airport’s public-private partnership concession, Ang also reported.
