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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider NAIA as worst biz class airport claim a hoax?

NAIA as worst biz class airport claim a hoax?

Published May 30, 2022 01:49 pm

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Manila International Airport Authority ( MIAA), in a statement issued over the weekend, questioned the veracity of a "recent study" ranking the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) as "the world's worst business class airport."

"The 'study' shows unfavorable rating and unsubstantiated claims about NAIA," the state transport agencies maintained.

manila-ninoy-aquino-international-airport

The rating was supposedly based on a study by Bounce Luggage Storage, compiled by using reviews aggregated via the blog businessclass.com and Skytrax, according to the state transport agencies.

Ironically, Bounce Luggage Storage is a luggage storage business that operates in several airports in the United States (US) and Asia but has "no operation whatsoever in the Philippines", DOTr and MIAA underscored.

Furthermore, "An extensive search on the businessclass.com website showed no reviews nor ratings concerning NAIA".

"It is also unknown when exactly the rating was done but a check with the feedback concerning the NAIA were dated 2020 as the latest, with most reviews and complaints coming from transiting international passengers who did not use the business class lounges," DOTr and MIAA underscored.

According to the supposed "study," NAIA got the worst scoring for three different categories: its number of destinations, on-time performance, and rating from Skytrax.

However, the transport agencies pointed out that the number of destinations is dictated by and determined thru bilateral and air services negotiations.

"It is also important to note that NAIA is a destination airport and not a hub airport, which is why there are not much business class lounges and onward destinations."

Passengers using business class lounges are those passing through for brief business trips or for stop over to take their onward/connecting flight to their final destinations.

"Airlines primarily determine their need to put up business class lounges for their customers. Business class lounges abound in hub airports, which NAIA is not," the statement underscored.

Likewise, it is highly implausible that the on-time performance contributed to the NAIA's supposedly worst rating, they argued.

During the last quarter of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the Air Carriers Association of the Philippines (ACAP) reported to the DOTr that the airlines' running On-Time Performance (OTP) average was 83 percent-- a far cry from the previous OTP of 40 percent in 2016.

Lastly, the Skytrax website showed that NAIA had a 3-star rating.

The 3-star rating is applied where staff service standards or the production facilities are fair or average.

The website states that Skytrax applies ratings between 1-Star and 5-Star for up to 800 customer-facing areas of airport products and services.

This spans 30 customer contact points from the airport website to terminal hotel quality.

The rating methodology is unified and consistent for the industry, and all airports, from the largest hubs to small regional facilities, and assessed using the same base criteria.

Ratings are based on the front-line customer experience on the end-to-end journey through an airport.

In fact, in 2018, NAIA made it to the top 10 of the world's most improved airports, based on the 2018 World Airport Awards, also conducted by Skytrax, according to the DOTr-MIAA statement.

"Since then, we have already undertaken more improvements in our facilities all geared to improve the entire passenger experience of a traveler."

"Significant improvements have been carried out in the country's main gateway in the past six years under the Duterte administration and we have stamped out longstanding issues that have tarnished the reputation of the NAIA for years," according to the statement.

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