THE new e-travel platform will completely eliminate the need for arriving passengers from abroad to line up in a separate queue for their health check.
This was confirmed by Bureau of Immigration spokesperson Dana Krizia Sandoval in a Viber message to the BusinessMirror. “It’s [e-travel platform] automatically integrated with the BOQ [Bureau of Quarantine]. Starting May 1, passengers can go straight to the Immigration counters.”
There may be instances though that the arriving passengers will be referred to the BOQ, she said, “if the system shows a red QR code, i.e. they did not fill out the e-travel form.”
BOQ Director Dr. Roberto Sandoval added, “Now the arriving passengers just have to pass the thermal scanner, then go straight to Immigration. If their e-travel form isn’t complete, they will have to return to BOQ for us to assist them.”
He also said the BOQ has thermal scanners in “every gate” at all international airports in the country.
New Immigration officers
The latest iteration of government’s e-travel platform eliminates the need for paper embarkation and disembarkation cards. Departing and arriving passengers by sea or by air should register on the e-travel page not earlier than 72 hours before their scheduled arrival in or departure from the Philippines. For departing passengers, their registration should be at the most, three hours prior to their schedule flight out of the country.
Sandoval also announced the appointment of 147 new Immigration officers, which could help beef up their counters at international airports and seaports. The long departure and arrival queues at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) have been blamed on the insufficient number of Immigration officers attending to passengers.
At the arrival areas, there are also very few e-passport gates: just five at Naia Terminal 1, five at Naia 3, and three at Naia 2. The three at Naia 2 will soon be transferred to Naia 3, with Naia 2 being converted to an all-domestic passenger terminal starting July 1.
Meanwhile, the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) tried to address the possible inconvenience that will be experienced by passengers of Philippines Air Asia, whose domestic operations will be moved to Naia 2, while their international operations remain at Naia 3.
‘No favoritism’ in terminal assignments
IN a recent interview at Teleradyo’s SRO, MIAA senior assistant general manager Bryan Co said in a mix of Filipino and English, “[The transfer to Naia 2] will benefit the most passengers of Philippines Air Asia, because as of now, a lot of them are in terminal 4, which is very congested. So by July 1, we expect that we will be able to deliver a better level of service for passengers of Air Asia and Royal Air [Philippines].”
However, industry sources said Air Asia management has been appealing to MIAA for their international flights to be transferred to Naia-1 instead of remaining at Naia-3. They averred Naia-3 is quite distant from Naia-2, making it very difficult for its passengers to make connecting flights. In contrast, Philippine Airlines’s international flights will be transferred to nearby Naia-1 as their domestic operations remain at Naia-2, while all of Cebu Pacific’s flights stay at Naia-3.
Co assured there was no favoritism in the assignment of terminals: “We studied everything in terms of terminal capacity allocation. For this phase, we’re still working with Air Asia how we can improve their operations, and there will be a bus link between terminal 2 and terminal 3 for connecting passengers.”
More buses to connect terminals
On suggestions that Air Asia international flights go to Naia-1, he explained that it will already be too full due to the transfer of PAL’s international operations. “Air Asia has a big international network already. When we spoke to their team, they will have a chance to grow at terminal 3 because there is still available capacity if they expand.”
Co said more buses will be added to inter-terminal bus loop to reduce trip intervals to 30 minutes from the current 45 minutes, making it a more reliable service. The trip intervals can be cut further to “15-20 minutes” if they travel “airside,” so the buses no longer have to leave the terminals and join the main vehicular traffic in the area.