Philippine Airport Tax Rise
For the longest time, travellers have had to pay $10-11 or PhP550 as airport tax, or “Airport Users Charge” as it is now called, on their way out of the Philippines. On my last trip however, this has risen to $15, or PhP750. Based on the breakdown written on the receipt, the additional 200 pesos apparently are security development charges.
Which I find ironic, because never had I breezed through the Manila airport as easily as this last visit. Gone were at least two check points. Hmm.
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I did see a couple of uniformed policemen (in blue) at the check-in area and the luggage x-ray, though.
Hm, not when I was there. I arrived at 9pm at the airport and there wasn’t a lot going on.
I usually take non-Philippine Airline flights everytime I fly to Manila either for business or family visit.
The ‘old’ terminal still has only one xray checkpoint. But once you are at the gate, still there are no hand-carry bag xrays. They still search your bags which is annoying.
They ask everything about my gadgets, e.g. Sony Vaio UX – the smallest laptop which appears like a huge digital camera. And the ladies at the gate don’t get it.
Again, like most airports around the world I’ve been in and out, the xray people ask you to switch on your laptop. Then switch it off right away. This is annoying since my good old Windows OS crashed several times because of improper startup and shutdown…