Tuesday, August 23, 2005

NAIA TERMINAL 3 OPENING SOON!

MABUHAY! WELCOME (BACK) TO THE PHILIPPINES!

The NAIA-3 was approved for construction in 1997 and is nearly complete. The modern US$640 million, 189,000 square meter facility was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) to have a capacity of 13 million passengers per year. However, a legal dispute between the government of the Philippines and the project's main contractor, PIATCO, over alleged anomalies in the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract, is holding completion and opening of the terminal. On December 2004, the Philippine Government took over the management of the facility (called "expropriation') through an order of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC). NAIA-3 is set to open its gates to the world in December 2005 and will take over all operations of NAIA-1.

The NAIA Terminals 2 (PAL) and 1 (All International Flights)


Just to help you imagine its location, it's right across Terminal II (aka Centennial Terminal) currently being used exclusively by Philippine Airlines

The facade. A really huge terminal, almost equivalent to 3X the SM Megamall. Alright, so it's not Hong Kong's CLK or Malaysia's awesome terminal but wow, something Manila can be proud of!

Green against grey to break the monotony of concrete: lovely!

The ramp (Departures on top, arrivals below)

The yawning space of the interiors


Some of the many check-in counters (yellow to represent the sun in the Philippine flag with hints of blue along the sides)
Exit: Welcome home!

Look at that ceiling!

Immigration counters (sadly, it looks kinda cramped)


Knowing how low Filipinos in general look at comfort rooms, I hope this one retains its cleanliness *crosses fingers*

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i didn't know terminal 3 looked this good! i especially liked the shot of the rest room lol

Citizen of the World said...

ha ha ha! it should look good, given its constructor. it will open in december.

Citizen of the World said...

Ivan, the MIAA released the photos to the media. :-) These aren't mine although i'd do anything to see the whole thing before it actually opens!

Anonymous said...

UNBELIEVABLE!!! Sorry, this is the first time I heard about this. Haven't been back for 5 years, and before that 8. Beats Sydney's hands down. Great to see how it looks, before it gets trashed.

Also, just to add, Dylan, thank you so much for spending the time doing this. You're doing a great service to Pinoy's all over.