MANILA — Travelers heading abroad on Holy Week are advised to be at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) 4 hours before their flight due to an expected influx of passengers, its management said on Tuesday.

Around 140,000 travelers are expected to pass through the country's main gateway daily during Holy Week, up from its current 120,000 passengers a day, Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) senior assistant general manager Bryan Co said.

"Ang paalala po natin dito sa peak season natin ay ang pagdating natin ng airport nang mas maaga. Of course, the earlier, the better para hindi po tayo nagmamadali sa ating iba’t ibang proseso tulad ng checkin, pagdaan sa final security or going through Immigration," Co said in a public briefing.

"For international flights po, we recommend po na at least 3 hours before the flight or 4 hours kung kakayanin po, and 2 hours naman po before the flight para sa ating mga domestic flights, [nasa airport na]," he added.

(We remind travelers to arrive at the airport earlier during the peak season so that we would not need to rush through various processes like checkin, fimal security check, or going through Immigration. For international flights, we recommend to be there at least 3 hours before the flight or 4 hours if we can, and 2 hours before the flight for domestic travelers.)

Co also urged passengers to consider traffic conditions on their way to the airport and take advantage of online payments for travel tax.

MIAA expects the surge of travelers to continue until May, he said.

This is first time that the country's domestic and international borders will be fully open since the COVID pandemic hit in 2020, Co noted.

"It is summer season, maraming nagbabakasyon at we are ready by the surge by adding man power resource," said the official.

(Many are going on vacations and we are ready for the surge.)

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He added that MIAA would deploy more help desks and install additional CCTV cameras to address recent complaints on alleged extortion attempts and lengthy processes.

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"[Ito ay para] may clear view tayo sa congestion points at processing areas para kapag nagkaroon ng insidente, madali natin mabalikan ang mga pangyayari dito sa ating mga CCTV recordings para mayroon tayong mga ebidensya laban sa mga iilan na mga tao na gumagawa ng katiwalian dito sa NAIA," he said.

(This is so that we could have a clear view of congestion points and processing areas so that in case of an incident, we can easily review CCTV recordings and gather evidence.)

- Report from Job Manahan, ABS-CBN News