Coronavirus scare takes toll on NAIA passenger traffic

Passenger traffic at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport declined amid the coronavirus scare, a government official said Wednesday.

Manila International Airport Authority general manager Ed Monreal said the country’s main gateway handled 1,352,692 international passengers from January 25 to February 17, down 16.74% from 1,624,698 passengers in the same period last year.

Domestic passenger traffic declined 3.42% to 1,406,876 passengers for January 25 to February 17 period as compared with 1,456,705 passengers in 2019.

“It’s a lost opportunity but at the end of the day there’s still time to recover and hopefully we’ll be able to recover soon,” Monreal said at a news conference in Malacañang, citing the lifting of travel restrictions on Taiwan, one of the top tourist source markets for the Philippines. 

The coronavirus disease outbreak in China had prompted the Philippine government on February 2 to impose a travel ban on mainland China and its special administrative regions Hong Kong and Macau.

Manila later included Taiwan in the travel ban but this was eventually lifted on February 14.

On Tuesday, the Philippines removed the travel ban for Filipino overseas workers, students and permanent residents bound for Hong Kong and Macau.

However, the ban on Filipinos going to the two Chinese territories as tourists is still in place. —NB, GMA News