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A new shop at Bohol-Panglao Airport
There’s a nice store at the Bohol-Panglao Airport. It was not yet there last year when last I was in Bohol so it was new to me. At the time, the additional coffee shops were still being fitted out.
A Nomad store greeted us as we cleared the final security check at the airport
They had all kinds of products including food and souvenir items like shirts, magnets and key chains.
OTOP stands for One Town, One Product, which is a program promoted across the country. This encourages various towns to identify, make and promote unique products including food items. Aside from those from Bohol, there are products from other provinces like otap and dried mangoes from Cebu, Napoleones and pinasugbo from Negros, pastel buns from Camiguin, and biscocho and piaya from Iloilo. I usually get frozen longanisa or chorizo at the store.
There were also stuffed toys, travel items and handicrafts
We first saw Nomad stores in Cebu’s Mactan Airport and at Laguindingan Airport (Cagayan De Oro). It is a welcome addition at Panglao though there are many small stores there already and there’s a local souvenir shop at the check-in lobby. The common denominator for these airport stores is that those airports are operated by Aboitiz, which has taken on airport operations and management as a business.
The other stores are still there including the Island Souvenirs shop and this small store selling wonderful muffins and cookies. The latter one I recommend to those who are making some last minute purchases to eat at home or at the airport while waiting for the boarding call.
Other stores at the ground floor of the airport
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Quick escapes
We decided to take an unplanned trip to one of our happy places. Our daughter loves Panglao and this was our nth trip with her. The weather though appears to be uncooperative.
We are hopeful that tomorrow will be better. At least the forecast is fair weather for both Saturday and Sunday. I’m not sure if we will have an unplanned boat ride. This is a short, quick escape so perhaps we’ll just stay at the resort. Quick trips like this is really for recharging one’s batteries given all the stress especially at work.
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What’s left of NAIA Terminal 4?
When we landed at NAIA last Saturday, our plane passed Terminal 3 to what we thought were the usual spaces for transporter interface with the terminal. We passed the area and proceeded to where Terminal 4 used to be. T4 was the Manila Domestic Airport or MDA in old documents.
The terminal building was demolished last year as part of San Miguel’s airport redevelopment that included building an extension of Terminal 2 and a new Terminal (5?) where the Philippine Village Hotel and Nayong Pilipino were located. A new terminal will also be built where the old one stood. How does this relate to the airport being developed in Bulacan? Will this be complementary airports like Narita and Haneda? Or perhaps like Don Muang and Suvarnabhumi?
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Tambayan at NAIA Terminal 3 – Part 1
I am sharing here some photos of the food hall found at Level B between the arrival and departure levels of Terminal 3. I’ve read about the renovations and improvements over the last few months but I haven’t been able to go around T3 in a while. Most of my travels last year were via Terminal 2 due to my travels to Bicol. The photos speak for themselves so I won’t be writing labels for each photo.
There are many eating options and more are going to open soon. We had our lunch at Pancake House prior to proceeding to our gate for our flight to Iloilo.
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New self check-in portals and turnstiles at NAIA Terminals 2 and 3
With the holidays coming up, travelers using the NAIA terminals should also note that there are new self check-in portals at the airport. I noticed in two recent travels (one via Terminal 2 and another via Terminal 3) that people taking Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines were not using these. Ceb Pac passengers in particular crowded over their portals near their check-in counters at T3. Walang pumapansin nitong mga bagong terminals that could save you time when you check-in. Here are photos of the ones at Terminal 2:
The areas where these were installed weren’t crowded.
You can use these for Cebu Pacific, Air Asia or Philippine Airlines.
You can get your boarding passes and luggage tags here.
NAIA admin has also installed these new automated turnstiles prior to the final security check and the boarding gates at Terminal 2.
You just need to scan your boarding pass for the barrier to open. I haven’t used any of the LRT/MRT lines lately but this is basically the technology we’d like to have for the station turnstiles.
Here are the self-check portals at T3. Of course, they would have even greater utility if more airlines are included for self check-in.
Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) terminals already have these new features for quite some time. It’s good that NAIA is finally catching up in modernizing its facilities. For the turnstiles, that tech should have been installed at train stations and a variant should allow for a variety of means for payment of fares.
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Robot barista at NAIA Terminal 2
In the previous post, I mentioned something about a robot barista at NAIA Terminal 2. Unfortunately, it wasn’t functioning at the time so I wasn’t able to try it out.
Another group purchasing coffee at the Robot Barista.
Perhaps there will be more of these in the future and replacing the manned shops at airport terminals. I imagine there might be these and vending machines providing food and drink at airports and other transport terminals.
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Vending machines at NAIA Terminal 2
There’s nothing really new at NAIA’s Terminal except maybe this time I noticed the vending machines at one end of the terminal and the robo coffee stand. I took some photos of these machines and share the following:
There are no new stores or eating options at T2. The two restaurants at the middle of the terminal wings are already closed so there are less eating options at the pre departure areas.
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Naga Airport arrival
Since I’ve written about Naga Airport in the previous post, I might as well follow-up with a short write-up on our arrival. I’m sharing the following photos I took on our arrival at the airport, which is actually located in the town of Pili, which is to the south of Naga City.
The airport terminal and control tower as viewed upon our deplaning
Walking towards the arrival area
The baggage claim area was the simplest I’ve seen with no conveyor belt or carousel.
We had to travel through these ramps towards the terminal building exit.
The final ramp descending towards the exit – this is another rather unusual design feature of the airport.
Terminal building exit for arriving passengers.
Airport terminal driveway with a view of the air traffic control tower
A view of the terminal building from the waiting shed across from the terminal
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Back in Bicol – arrival at Naga Airport
I posted about the airports in Daraga/Legazpi City and Davao City as I knew I would be traveling to Naga City and likely by air. That likelihood became certainty as horror stories of 14-16 hour travel by bus became unacceptable for short trips where the travel times by road exceeded our actual stay in the city.
More on Naga City in the next posts!
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NAIA Terminal 1’s departure level driveway and drop-off
Weeks ago there was a fatal incident involving a motorist who plowed into well-wishers and passengers at NAIA Terminal 1. It was revealed. I finally had the chance to see the area for myself. I had not gone to Terminal 1 in a long while and especially after San Miguel Corporation had taken over the airport. The photos shared below were taken by my wife as we eased into the departure driveway of NAIA T1 one early morning last week.
Arriving at the west wing of the departure level of Terminal 1. Those are luggage carts lined up along the sidewalk. There are cones for the restricted area but these turned out to be to block vehicles from using the inner lane adjacent to the terminal.
West wing entrance of Terminal 1 – unlike Terminals 2 and 3, there is really no area for well-wishers. Note the bollards that are supposed to protect people from errant vehicles. We now know these were not built or installed to the required specifications for protection.
Vehicles are now parked parallel along the center of the driveway. Previously they were angled facing the terminal.
In terms of the space available, this significantly reduces the number of vehicles that can park to drop off passengers at the departure driveway.
Screenshot from Google Maps showing the previous layout of the drop-off parking. Note the vehicles pointing towards the terminal.
Passengers unloading their luggage behind the vehicles. There are markings for the vehicle slot but most just park parallel where space is available at the center of the driveway.
There is a buffer zone between the inner driveway lane and the drop-off lane. There were no vehicles using the inner lane but you can see in the photo that there are also curbside slots. Perhaps these are used during the busier times at the terminal?
Other passengers were also taking photos as their luggage were being unloaded from their vehicles.
This is where the fatal crash occurred. It seems the damage has been repaired and quickly and its business as usual at the airport.
NAIA authorities should already start retrofitting or reinstalling the bollards at the terminal. This would ensure the safety of passengers vs. vehicles that may or may not be under the control of their drivers. The effort to quickly address the concern is much appreciated but a long term solution needs to be implemented to prevent future crashes from occurring here and at other terminals.
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Caught (up) in traffic 