MANILA — Some departing passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 were not able to board their flights due to long queues at the immigration area Wednesday afternoon.

Elsa Aquino, one of the passengers who did not make it to her scheduled flight at 3:55 p.m., complained about waiting for two hours in line.

Aquino, together with her two children, were set to fly to Dubai to celebrate her 60th birthday next week.

"Parang nagsisi ako. Meron pa ngang nahilo. Ako nga, may fracture kaya ngawit na ngawit ako. Dapat mayroon silang priority lane sa mga seniors at may mga iniinda," she said.

The Aquino family had to re-book their tickets to a Thursday morning flight and opted to stay overnight at the airport's lobby.

"Diyos ko, naka-rebook na kami, kaya lang wala na sanang delay sa immigration," she said.

Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Norman Tansingco said that "all agencies involved in airport operations must work together to resolve airport lines."

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Tansingco explained that immigration counters at the airport have reached the maximum capacity, even after assigning two to four immigration officers to counters in certain terminals.

"All counters were manned, but the lines remained long. It’s already a space problem. We can add so many officers, but if the space is limited, then there will still be lines," he said.

Tansingco called for the cooperation of airline companies by regulating the influx of travelers through proper scheduling.

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