The Office for Transportation Security (OTS) said on Monday that if the US flights of Philippine Airlines (PAL) will make their transfers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1, the OTS will be having difficulty managing the large volume of passengers at NAIA 1.
This was after Department of Transport Secretary Jaime Bautista made a surprise inspection of NAIA Terminal 2, where PAL is housed, and ordered Manila International Airport Authority general manager Cesar Chiong to undertake repairs of the terminal due to passenger congestion, lack of proper lighting, and poor signage and air conditioning. The repairs would displace PAL’s US flights to NAIA Terminal 1.
According to new OTS administrator Undersecretary Ma. Ranada Aplasca, at this moment there is only one human screener being used at NAIA 1 for Advance Imaging Technology (AIT), which is the only security scanner device that has been approved by the US Transportation Security Administration (US-TSA). The US-TSA has discouraged the use of metal detectors and walk-through scanners for the final security check of passengers at any international airport because these devices are considered old and not accurate.
Aplasca said the final security check area at the NAIA 1 pre-departure area is too small; thus, if there are concurrent flights, the passenger lines will definitely become congested.