FROM nine minutes to nine seconds.
This, according to Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime Bautista, is the newest improved security check time that the US-bound passengers will get to experience at the NAIA Terminal 1 beginning October 28, 2023 as part of continous enhancement of passenger experience at the premier airport terminals.
The effort, according to Bautista, is the result of a collaboration between the DOTr, the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) headed by general manager Bryan Co and and airlines.
Co explained that while previously, the handcarry or boxes of passengers of US-bound flights are subjected to swabbing and then opened, such will no longer be the case with the deployment of baggage screening machines that will decrease the security check time from nine minutes to nine seconds.
“Usually, ang swabbing at pagbukas ng maleta or bag takes nine minutes bago ma-repack ulit ng pasahero. Now as per instruction of Secretary Bautista for better passenger experience, we deployed two x-ray machines para dun na lang ipapasok ang handcarry bags and balikbayan boxes especially. No more need to open, x-ray na lang. Pag me nakita, pwede pabuksan pero unlike before na swab at bukas talaga,” Co said.
He also announced that a similar screening machine will also be utilized by the United Airlines as it begins to mount its US flights on October 30.
These machines, Co said, are the ones that were previously being used at the initial x-ray area but which were removed for a more seamless travel experience for air passengers.
Meanwhile, Bautista said that the number of people who will be traveling via land, air and sea during the ‘Undas’ season is expected to reach at least one million a day.
According to Bautista, the bulk comes from those traveling by land that registers at least 110,000 passengers a day, followed by air travelers at a minimum of 130,000 a day.
Bautista expressed satisfaction over what he saw as he and Co made the rounds at the NAIA Terminal 1, accompanied by public affairs office chief Ma. Connie Bungag, airport senior assistant general manager for security and emergency services Col. Manuel Gonzales, corporate board member Adrian Carlos Bersamin, DOTr head executive assistant Eugenio Paguirigan, the new administrator of the Office for Transportation Security Jose Briones, Jr. and Atty. Carmelo Arcilla, head of the Civil Aeronautics Board.
The secondary security checks are being done in compliance with the requirements of the US-Transport Security Administration (TSA) for US-bound flights.
