FIRST of all, I would like to personally thank Lanze Edric Tibor of Cebu Pacific for being such an angel to two senior citizens who traveled recently via the NAIA Terminal 3.
He willingly helped out the said passengers when one of them was having a problem generating a QR code from his Etravel.
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In just a little over a year since the New NAIA Infra Corp. (NNIC) assumed control of operations at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), the country’s main gateway has achieved a major milestone—its first-ever global customer-experience accreditation from the Airports Council International (ACI).
ACI is the global association of airport authorities, representing more than 2,000 airports worldwide. Its Airport Customer Experience Accreditation (WACEA) program aims to strengthen long-term customer experience management. Participating airports undergo a comprehensive review and training process covering stakeholder engagement, employee involvement, and staff development.
This accreditation brings several advantages: it enables airports to identify new customer-experience management practices and create an actionable improvement plan; provides access to expert guidance, tools, and training programs; promotes collaboration with stakeholders to elevate the passenger experience; and helps airports demonstrate their commitment to delivering better service to the communities they serve.
“Earning the ACI accreditation this early says a lot about the people working everyday to improve NAIA,” NNIC president Ramon S. Ang proudly said, adding that: “we still have a lot to do, but because of their commitment, we are making steady progress in terms of upgrading the airport’s systems and strengthening the service culture that travelers experience.”
NNIC general manager Lito Alvarez said that the NAIA achieved Level 1 Airport Customer Experience Accreditation, the first time the country’s main gateway has been recognized by ACI for meeting international standards in managing and improving the passenger experience.
The accreditation program, he said, is the only global framework that evaluates how airports understand, measure and improve the end-to-end passenger journey.
Alvarez cited that from July to September 2025, ACI’s Airport Service Quality (ASQ) survey gathered real-time feedback from 700 arriving and departing passengers across all terminals.
NAIA achieved 100 percent compliance with ACI’s sampling and data standards, allowing its results to be included in the organization’s global benchmarking program.
He noted that this recognition came just a little over a year after the NNIC—a consortium led by San Miguel Corporation (SMC) and Incheon International Airport Corp.—took over NAIA’s operations under a public-private partnership awarded through competitive bidding in September 2024. He added that NAIA accommodates around 50 million passengers annually, placing it among the region’s busiest airports and underscoring the scale of work involved.
Alvarez also emphasized that the accreditation reflects early gains from NNIC’s dual focus on customer-experience management and physical modernization. These efforts helped raise NAIA’s passenger satisfaction score to 4.06 out of 5 in the latest ACI ASQ survey—surpassing the 4.0 performance requirement under the concession agreement.
Meanwhile, SMC Vice President for Special Communications Mary Jane Llanes highlighted consistent improvements across staff courtesy, check-in efficiency, and terminal facilities, with scores increasing quarter after quarter.
To further enhance the passenger experience, Llanes said the NNIC recently opened the 6,000-square-meter Mezzanine Food Hall at Terminal 3, with additional food halls and restaurants set to open across Terminals 1 and 2 by early 2026.
Physical upgrades are also underway, from infrastructure rehabilitation and terminal expansion to new power systems, modernized baggage handling, the rollout of the new Collins biometric passenger processing system and improved digital information systems, among others, LLanes added.
On top of these, she said that the NNIC has remitted over P57 billion to the national government in its first year — the highest revenue share ever recorded for a Philippine airport concession — showing how the PPP is delivering tangible benefits to both government and the public.
It can be said that in just one year since assuming operations in September 2024, the NNIC has invested P3.25 billion in upgrades under a P72-billion five-year plan.
Some key improvements already completed or are ongoing include the following: new chillers, feeders, and substations with Meralco; rehabilitated drainage, cleaned waterways around NAIA that eliminated flooding; upgraded airfield lighting, pavements and power systems; refurbished terminal interiors, better Wi-Fi and immigration queuing; new escalators, walkalators, x-ray units and CCTV systems; automated parking system, centralized TNVS hub, and smoother traffic flow; wider curbsides and more parking spaces built; construction of Terminals 4 and 5 underway and the roll-out of New Collins Biometric Passenger Processing System soon.
These are just some of the changes that travelers can already see and feel these days. Indeed, modernizing a decades-old, over-capacity airport simply cannot be done overnight, but it appears that we are really getting there faster than expected.
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