Airport terminal fee cut to P550

Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 in Pasay City. RODEL ROTONI/INQUIRER

Good news for departing international passengers: The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) will rollback the P750 airport terminal fee to its original rate of P550 starting February 1.

“The MIAA started imposing the additional P200 to the original P550 terminal fee on Feb. 1, 2007, to fund the acquisition of state-of-the-art security equipment at the airport terminals,” said MIAA General Manager Jose Angel Honrado, adding that the collection was intended for five years.

“That five-year term will lapse on January 31 this year, so by February 1, the terminal fee for passengers on international flights will go back to its original rate,” he announced.

Honrado clarified that terminal fee for domestic passengers would remain at P200 because only international passengers were affected by the terminal fee increase in 2007.

According to him, the MIAA was able to collect a total of P1.2 billion in security development fees.

“We will use the fund for the acquisition of sophisticated equipment, including new surveillance cameras, X-ray machines, body scanners, shoe detector machines, explosive detection system, among others,” he said.